


Sanctuary

by Timpaxew



Series: Myth au [1]
Category: Youtube RPF
Genre: All other students are youtubers, F/M, M/M, Magic, Septicpie, Slow Burn, Tythan, extremly slow burn, i love them, long fic, mythical creatures, super powers, tyler and Ethan are so cute man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2018-09-10 19:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8933935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpaxew/pseuds/Timpaxew
Summary: that one angsty urban fantasy au with the really slow burn (Pov switches between characters so the three main ships, tythan septicpit and amyplier, are all focused on but other ships will make appearances but will not be focused on)





	1. Matches

**Author's Note:**

> if you want to know more about this au check out my blog, @timpaxew on tumblr!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe kind of a prologue? if that's the definition of that word and I'm not an idiot

Mark had no idea what was happening. Well, that was an understatement, or at least it's not saying the full truth. He knew what was happening, just not why, or how, or... where, even. At least he knew full well what he was doing. He was running as fast as he could, he could tell you that much at least. He may not have known what he was running from, or where he was running to, but he was sure as hell dashing full speed across the forest. Mark blinked rapidly as he barely ducked under another low hanging tree branch, knocking the dust and soot that had settled there into his eyes. 

He could feel the heat from the fire, that was a certainty. At least in the moment that may have been his only of the sort. He did know some things along the list of who, what, when, where, and why. He was running, clearly that was the what. Who, well he's himself, clearly, he's Mark. Mark looked down at his hands as he jumped over a small dried creekbed. They were his alright, scar and all. So the who was maybe his only absolute certainty, he was Mark Fishcbach. When? When was iffy, it looked to be night, but that could just be the smoke in the air, and he couldn't remember walking into this forest either, so god knows how long he's been there. The forest itself, that was the where, he was in a forest. Doesnt know which forest, but a forest. He couldn't even come close to reasoning out the Why, that was an enigma in of itself. Three out of five ain't bad. 

He didn't have his phone, he checked what seemed like forever ago, his pockets were empty. Not like he'd have any idea who to call, anyway. Tyler or ethan? His dad? He'd probably just call 911, if he was able to. 

His ankle caught on a partially burnt bush that tangled up from the uneven forest floor. The toe of his other sneaker scuffed across the ground as he struggled to regain balance. Mark cursed under his breath, hopping awkwardly on one foot for a second. The ash that fitted through the air stung at his eyes, and the lights of the fire burned intricate patterns into the inside of his eyelids. Even when he fully opened them, he couldn't see past the thick fog of smoke that hung thick in the air. He stumbled through the forest. 

Where was he? The question snuffed out as it fell on weighted air. It hadn’t been directed to anyone in particular. Not as though there was anyone around to hear it. Mark’s ankle collided off balance with the ground under a small clifface that broke off from the rest of the forest floor. It created a drop just large enough to catch him off guard, throwing him off his balance completely.

The palm of his left hand hit the ground first as he skidded over the ash. The hot coals that were scattered across the forest below scraped the bare skin over his palm and the side of his forearm as he skidded a few feet across the tarnished grass. He hissed a sharp breath through his teeth, bringing his palm to his chest and balling it into a fist. Ash was smeared across the skin of his palm, Streaks of black and grey stained the fabric of the bland logo sweatshirt he was wearing. He almost fell forward as he tried to stand up. He stumbled to a halt, closing his eyes as he coughed once more into his sleeve. His breathing had been reduced to quick scratchy breaths as he stood on the balls of his feet, trying to catch his breath.

It stopped. Nothing particular stopped, he couldn't manage to pin down anything as absent. But there was nothing. The noticeable presence of nothing stood out to him far more than the absence of what was there before. It was quiet, far more quiet than he could describe as natural. 

Over the course of what must have been less than a minute mark opened his eyes again. First, he noticed he wasn't in the same place he was when he closed them. He must have been in some other part of the forest. A small clearing in the trees, where the sky clearly shown through the foliage. He could feel the heat of the fire on his skin, and the taste of ash on his mouth from breathing in the smoke. He felt the echo of the pain from the burns the fire had left scattered on his arms, and the buzzing pain from when he had tripped and twisted his ankle. The soft background noises of the fire returned slower, starting off soft in the back of his mind and rising. Until the sound of the fire roaring hit him full force. 

And then he heard talking, scattered voices barely noticeable on the wind. The voices and tones of the speakers he could barely make out, but the words were lost to him. They might has well have been speaking another language. 

The sound of sneakers colliding with earth, mirrored by sharp, strained breathing. Someone running, running towards them and getting louder. Their breathing was growing ragged and less consistent. The drum of the rubber of the soles against the forest floor was oddly paced, erratic. It echoed from inside Marks scull, growing louder still/ 

He brought his hands to cover his ears as he stumbled forwards. Another two sets of feet, colliding with the ground in stunted rhythm, the sharp sound of hooves kicking up loose soot. One impact replaced by two more in faltering pattern as they ran over and through the undergrowth. He could hear branches and plants pushed to the side and rocks dispersed across the ground. 

And then the running stopped. It was sudden and caught mark off guard as the sound cut through into the clearing. Light spilled out over the grass in droves, cutting through the smoke of the fire.

In front of him stood a centaur. Or, a figure vaguely the shape of what he recognized as a centaur. The vague silhouette was made of churning colored light, brick red and darker russet brown mixing like ocean waves. It wasn't quite like light from a flashlight, closer to ink through water, spreading out from the figure. The longer he searched the centaurs face and more minor details of the figure the less identifiable features he could make out from the centaur. He had short cut hair and large ears pressed against the back of his head, he was hunched forward, with his arms held behind himself. The centaur looked past him, turning behind himself for a moment before trotting past. Light of a different color, manifested as he looked its way. Draped across the centaurs back was another figure, either a siren, or a mermaid. He couldn't quite tell. Their light was a seafoam green that cascaded across the centaurs flanks like water, rolling off and pooling over what was left of the forest's grassy floor.

Mark stared at the figures, the longer he looked, the more abstract they appeared, but at the same time, he could make out streaks of darker color, like burns across their skin.

He took a step closer to them, before he heard a noise breaking into the relative quiet of the clearing. He whipped around to the direction of the noise. 

Another figure was standing across the clearing, this one was different than the other two. Where the others had been clear cut silhouettes of colored light, with their vague features barely visible. This one was, for lack of a better word, wrong. It felt wrong to look at them, it was almost visceral. It hurt to look at. It was dressed in a light, almost sky blue. Clouds of light fell off the figure in droves, chunks, of it seemed to lag behind as the light tried to disperse out from the figure. The light stagnated in the air before falling no less than a few inches from the figure in strange, unnatural patterns. Every few seconds the light would flash with a firework of greenish yellow that bursted from the edges of the cloud like ink dyeing water. The green seemed to push the light back to a silhouette, before it cracked again. The figure was smaller than the others, smaller than him, even. His stance, from what he could make of it, seemed frozen, as if he had struggled to a stop after entering the clearing.

Mark opened his mouth to say something to the figure. No words escaped him in that moment. Instead a small puff of smoke curled off his lips and dissipated into the air around him. Like warm breath on a cold winter's day it fell off his lips and dissolved into the air around him.His mouth tasted like he'd eaten the leftover charcoal after a particularly large campfire. It tasted burnt. Mark couldn't breath, and then he couldn't see. The lights that filled the forest faded from his vision as his own sputtering coughs dissolve to nothing.


	2. rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at them what cuties

For the life of him, Robin can’t remember ever walking out this far into the forest in his life, the knots on the trees and the low growing bushes looked just familiar enough for him to vaguely recognize them, but it did little to actually jog his memory. Maybe it had been the blur of the rain that had brutally murdered his spacial awareness. Or maybe it was the fact that Robin was just a forgetful person from the start. Either way, rain? It sucked. 

It fell cold, it fell hard, and it fell on him. All things bearable separate, but together, a fate worse than death. It had almost driven him to the point of shivering, his light grey fur soaked through to the bone. Times like this Robin usually tried to seek shelter in the deeper parts of the forest, where the canopy caught most of the rainfall. But of course today he’d forget to look up to check for the billowing rain clouds prowling on the horizon.

The centaur sighed as he tried to wipe drops of rain from his face. He was sitting underneath a pine tree, god knows where in the forest. Just about every time he brought up his hand to wipe rain from his face, another ten drops would hit him square on the forehead. To tell the least, Robin was not having a fun time. 

If he recalled correctly he had already passed the collection of knotted pines that tangled over the creek, but he hadn’t gone as far to where the creek fell to open pools and cave mouths farther into the forest. 

Robin flicked rain water from his ear, frowning at how absolutely soaked he was. He did not like that. The soft rumbling of the thunder echoed from somewhere far off, the sound of it made his fur stand on end. Hopefully it didn't come any closer. He didn't need an electrical storm right now, or ever. But especially not at the moment. 

Sheets of the rain fell from the blanket of clouds that had enveloped the forest, at some point either he moved to a part of the forest with a less dense cropping of leaves, or the rain had picked up. Either way, he could barely make out his own hand in front of his face. 

Robin watched the blur of the rain, cantering across a small drop in the terrain. He sat under a large pine that seemed to keep at least some of the rain off of him. Not enough of it, at least. He may have been protected from some of the rain, but he allowed himself to wallow in the annoyance of the pine needles that insisted to now poke him in the flank. 

It was getting late and he was tired, cold, and upset. And soaked to the bone. Robin rubbed his face as he settled down further in the bed of pine needles and shut his eyes. 

The thunder rumbled on from it’s far off place of residence. Robin pricked his ears towards the noise. Before he could narrow out which direction it was coming from, it stopped, he couldn't hear it any more. It better not be coming his way. 

Robin never did like storms. They had scared him since he was a kid. They sucked! Hes said it before and he'll say it a million times more. They had always unnerved him to no extent! He dreaded the days when the storms shook the sparced trees of the forest to their roots. He's on edge the moment it starts to drizzle. 

He can't even remember what sparked his fear at this point, probably the remnants of some repressed memory the child in him experienced, some childhood fear he had carried over to this point in his life, there really was no special reason to be scared of a storm. It keeps the plants alive and all that.

He isn't even scared of the storm itself, its… it’s hard to explain. Robin’s scared of the threat of a storm. The crack of thunder, the destruction it leaves on the forest, the screaming of the wind. God knows of lightning’s trademark ability to catch things on fire. Everything he associated with the storms was bad. Storms were bad.

Eventually, after sitting in the pile of pine needles for who knows how long the rain was starting to let up. The light blue shine of the sky cut through the blanket of darken rain clouds. 

The rain was no longer falling in sheets onto the forest below, but instead, at the moment it was barely showering, the rain flowing lazily to pool in the already growing puddles of the undergrowth.

Robin could finally see the world around himself through the falling raindrops, and the wind had slowed to a crawl as it meandered its way through the presently rain soaked forest. Every so often it got the courage to shake drops of water from the leaves above him. Robin cursed the wind as he wiped off a fresh drop of water that had fallen onto his brow. 

The seasons had flipped from summer to fall not all too long ago, which meant it was the start of the rainy season. And the time of year when fruit was it’s hardest to find and rain was at its easiest. To say the least, and in the least sarcastic way possible, this was Robin's favorite season. 

A couple weeks ago he had seen an apple tree that had managed to still be green this late in the summer. And it wasn't just a green apple, no, he had made that mistake once. On a completely related note, unripe apples are the worst possible tasting thing. Anyway, the tree he had seen was almost ripe and he made a mental note to check up on it when he could. 

At this point he had memorized where to find most of the fruit bearing trees in the forest, he just wished there was more. Anyways, there's enough for him. He doesn't have the heart to hunt, even if he did know how to build a fire. 

If Robin could remember correctly the apple tree was on the complete other side of the forest. That being said, he’s still not completely sure where he currently was.There was a section of the forest that was primarily oak trees, with birch and ash trees scattered about, the area had an over abundance of apple trees but not much else fruit-wise.  
Sometimes he would find fruit that hung lower to the ground on vines or bushes that was really good, these little purple berries, that were shaped like raspberries but were purple instead of red. Well, they were red when they were green, or unripe would be the better word. They turned this purplish black color when they were ready to be picked. He feels like he should know their name, but for the life of him he cant put a finger on it. 

Maybe he’d remember soon. In the meantime, he’d taken to calling them paspberries, as a portimeu for purple-raspberries. The berry tasted really good but he hadn't seen any of it recently. 

Robin watched as the forest around him blended from pine to towering oak trees, he must have ended up at that section of the forest already. Robin was trotting past a pair of large oaks when he saw what he was looking for, apples at the brink of ripeness, but that were not quite too terribly green either hung from the tree that sat in front of him.

A couple of them looked ripe enough for his taste, but others still looked like they were mainly green. He might as well pick some of them now. Reminding himself to come back to this tree later to pick the less ripe ones, Robin plucked a few fruits from the tree before rolling over one of the apples in his hand, eyeing it for any rotten spots, it didn't seem to have any brown spots, though yellow was peeking through the red at some points, maybe they were still a bit unripe.

Robin smiled as he picked a few more of the fruit and placed them in the faded blue bag that hung at his side. 

Along the side of the bag the words “I”, a small read heart, and then the letters “o s u” at least, that's what Robin is 78% sure it says. That would make the most sense, and he's fairly confident in his ability to read. Confident enough. He's pretty sure those letters stand for something. 

Struggling with the button on his bag, Robin nearly tripped on a rock as he walked down a small jagged cliff, it was only about as tall as him and seemed to connect deeper into a cave, the mouth of which opened up to a small rounded pond.

Robin shook his back leg, knitting his eyebrows as he jumped down the rest of the rock face, looking over the small pond. The water looked fairly clean, he could actually see a few tadpoles or minnows or something, under the surface. A couple Lillie pads were scattered over its surface, the pond itself being crowned with a few bushes, they looked like berry bushes, maybe raspberriesif he had to guess.

Robin shrugged as he reached into his bag and pulled out his faded plastic cup, the color was long gone on it, the plastic was once colored with some logo or another, he kneeled over the water as he filled his cup.

Robin heard a soft hissing as he leaned closer to the water’s edge. Looking down at the rippling water he was greeted by a pair of blue eyes staring back at him. Rising from the water was a mop of tangled brown hair. They looked about Robin's age, green scales littering their face and frilled fins covering their ears.

Robin tripped over his own hooves as he scrambled away from the edge of the water "Woah, dude you scared me!" He said, peering over at the water again. After receiving no answer Robin continued "I thought I was alone in this forest! This is great!" He smiled at the other, who just knitted his eyebrows as he stared back at him.

"Anyway!" Robin smiled, walking closer to sit next to the water. "My names Robin" The other boy just cocked his head to the side and turned to dive under the water’s surface. 

Robin rose an eyebrow at the water. That was weird. He didn't even answer? Robin shook his head, settling onto the ground and laying on a larger rock that was propped above the water. He’d just have to wait for him to surface again. 

Robin flicked his tail across his back, the sky had changed from blue to patterns of yellows and oranges, and the smell of fresh rain had long disappeared from the air. 

Robin was disappointed, to say the least, but he couldn't leave now that he knew that what he supposed was a cave siren was there. 

The pond, he noticed, was being fed by a outrunning of the main creek, at where the creek met the pond a large oak tree had tangled its roots into the bubbling flow of the water, that ran from somewhere deeper into the woods. 

He'd have to walk it one time to see where it goes, following the stream was always fun.   
The low hanging clouds stretched out above him, they were painted with various shades of oranges and reds, fading into the night sky as the sun sat, on the brink of falling below the horizon.

Watching the water bubble over the roots and small waterfalls of rocks. Robin let his ears fall, yawning slightly. 

Robin thought for a moment, staring at the creek water, what was that other kid doing? Maybe he was thinking about him too. Hopefully they could talk again. Hopefully they could be friends, It got pretty lonely waiting in the forest alone. 

The closest people were the mellows that lived on the farms past the forest, he didn't go past that way much. But maybe the siren felt the same way? Maybe they could be each other's friends! Then both of them could have a friend and neither of them would have to be alone. 

Robin grabbed his bag from where he had laid it on the rock, searching through it with on hand. He'd been keeping scattered fruit in it to eat later. Maybe the siren would want it. 

What if the siren hates apples! What if he'll only eat oranges or lemons! Lemons are disgusting! What if they don't get along, what if the siren only likes lemons. How could they possibly be friends then! No, they can like and dislike different things, but they can still be friends. Even if the siren doesn't like the same fruits as him they should be able to get along right?

Robin stepped closer to the pond, greeted by a familiar soft hissing. "Hello.." Robin said softly taking a few steps back, leaning down towards the water again he talked over the water "I decided the best way to make friends is a formal introduction."

Now lying with his legs under him, and slowly putting his hand into the water, Robin spoke softly again "Hi, my name is Robin, and I'd like to be your friend"

The hissing faded and was replaced by a mop of brown hair rose that from the water. "What do you want?" The siren asked.

"Hey! Just wanted to umm, to know if you wanted any fruit?" Robin laughed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I don't," the siren paused for a second as the centaur pulled an apple out of his bag and handed it to him "... normally eat fruit..." the siren sighed as he looked over the apple he was handed "but I guess I'll eat this one since you so kindly gave it to me"

Ok, so it was working! The siren doesn't seem to like fruit, which is weird, but he's gotten him talking! Maybe he knows where to get other food? 

"Well now that I got you talking," Robin stopped to motion the siren to stay for a second more "what's your name?" Robin asked.

"The names Jack" the siren said before diving under the water, splashing Robin as he flicked his fins over the surface of the water.

The mission to make a friend seemed to be working pretty well, working better than most of his plans, to be honest. Moving over to sit closer to the water, Robin smiled as he bit into his apple.

Hopefully the siren would like him, they could get along well,or at least that the siren wouldn't be super rude. Maybe he could deal with him being rude. He seemed nice, anyway.

Having abandoned his long finished apple rind not to long ago, Robin was now playing in the dirt "I wonder if the siren liked his apple?" Robin asked himself, shaking his back leg as he stood up, it had fallen asleep. Was he eating it under water? Hopefully that was working out well enough for him. 

Robin looked over towards the pond from where he was sitting, the siren was nowhere to be seen, maybe he was swimming under the surface or something. Robin reached behind himself and grabbed a stick that had fallen from one of oak trees that lined the pond. He moved the stick back and forth over the surface of the water, sending a ripple across its surface.

Nothing happened, maybe he'd have to try something louder, more attention grabbing. Robin felt around on the ground next to him until he found a rock, after picking it out of the dirt, he threw it into the water which resulted in a small splash. After a moment of staring at the water, Jack rose to the surface.

What do you want?" Jack asked again, the same disinterested form of anger he had shown to wear frequently. The fins that covered his ears were pressed against his neck. They covered his gills. 

Oh no, the siren seemed angry, he probably just ruined any chance at friendship he had at this point, "umm," Robin took a step back from the water, how could he possibly fix this, his new friend was mad at him, Robin was the rude one.The siren stared at him for a moment, his fins falling down on his face before he turned to dive back into the water.

"Wait, don't go, talk to me!" Robin said, taking a few steps closer to the water.

"Talk?" Jack laughed, swimming closer to the water's edge.

"I don't know," Robin smiled as he sat down on one of the larger rocks that sat on the edge of the water, "did you like the apple?"

"I prefer fish," Jack said before catching Robin's eyes "but I liked it, it was super good."

Robin blinked at him before standing a little straighter on his rock, reaching into his bag and rummaging through it, "Oh good! I brought more fruit, by the way, I didn't know if you like didn't like apples or something, I didn't want to only bring fruit you didn't like."

"What fruit did you bring?" Jack asked, rising up further from the water and leaning on the ponds edge. 

"Oh! I bought a lemon and some pears, I also have a couple more apples" Robin listed off, placing the fruit on the rock in front of him.

"Could I have the yellow one?" Jack said, pushing himself onto the rock with his forearms.

"The lemon? Sure, but they're super sour" Robin laughed, handing the siren the fruit. “I usually eat them with something else. 

Jack started to bite into the lemon like he was eating an apple.

"Wait, Jack give me a second" Robin said, taking the lemon from his new friend. What. How could he not know how to eat a lemon, "You have to peel it first" Robin explained, half joking as he ripped off the rind of the lemon.he was waiting for Jack to say that was a joke, but the punch line never came. 

Once he had finished he handed Jack the peeled lemon, who took a bite out of it. "That's sour!"

"Yes, it's a lemon" Robin said sarcastically. 

"No, it's like really sour!" Jack repeated.

"It is, but you like it?" Robin asked, did he really like it? 

"It's pretty good”

Of course he'd like lemons! Robin smiled at his friend. That's fine, really. At least he's learning what Jack likes.

****

Robin was awkwardly standing ankle deep in pond water, trying to shake mud off his hooves with every step.

Jack was sitting in the water, pushing himself up with his forearms, his tail wrapped around himself in the shallow water.

The sun was setting, lighting the sky in a honeyed golden orange that warmed the fur on Robin's back despite the cold water settling into his legs.

"Ok so all you have to do is walk further into the water and then kick your legs and move your arms like," Jack stopped talking to move his arms like he was swimming, "like this."

"Dude, I told you, I will literally sink" Robin took a step back in the water, almost slipping on a rock. “I said i never learned how to swim, not that i don't understand the concept of it”

"It's not even that deep in this area, you'll be fine" Jack laughed. 

"No, I won't" Robin crossed his arms across his chest, his already cold and wet arms cold against his skin. Jack had maken him take off his shirt and the old tattered blanket he had across his flank. Which was fine in theory, he didn't want them to get wet. 

"Come on, you can do it!” Jack encouraged him, now swimming in the deeper water a few feet away. At least it looked deeper, unless Jack had twisted his tail in some contortionist fashion to hide it all under water. The pond presumably dropped into the cave sooner or later, so most likely the former. 

"I will die" Robin flicked his tail across his flank, taking his hoof out of the water and shaking the water off of it before taking another step. 

"You won't die if you sink, I'll just pull you back up" Jack shook his head. 

"Fine, fine I'll try" Robin gave in, taking a few more steps into the water. It ended up reaching to his underbelly when he stopped, looked to Jack, and sighed before continuing. 

It wasn't that Robin didn't like water, it was just, he didn't interact with it much. I mean how much could he, a centaur, really go in the water. Why would he? He had no reason to. Besides the obvious. Like if some odd intrusive thought, or debatably friendly siren, told him to go swimming, he could. Doesn't mean it had to happen. 

Maybe he should go in the water more, his new friend lived in the water and that must be incentive enough. He had already given into swimming with Jack once. He can already tell he better start listening to Jacks advice. 

Robin looked down at Jack, who was had started pulling on his arm, "come on! You can do it!" 

Jack laughed, moving a step back and motioning him to follow, "I believe in you!" He   
said, sarcastically waving his arms in the air.

"Thanks, I'm glad I can depend on you at least" Robin laughed, taking a couple steps deeper into the water. He wasn't even really swimming, just wading through the water. He was taller than he realised, apparently. 

"Don't move!" Jack chirped from behind him.

"What?" Robin turned back towards Jack, "What!"

"Oh! There's a bit of a fall behind you, it leads to the cave," Jack said, swimming over to him. " it would probably be a bit of a shock for ya to go from standing in the water to it being super high above your head." Jack laughed.

"So do you want to teach me how to swim in this belly deep water or is there an in between of super deep and shallow?" Robin asked.

"Alright, alright-" the siren was cut off by Robin motioning him to be quiet. Robin heard the sound of footsteps, his ears immediately perking towards the noise. Robin turned his head towards the noise, eyes scanning the line of forest surrounding the pond. 

Robin looked back down at Jack when he heard a hissing again, but the siren was gone, Robin could see his shape moving under the water, why had he left, and what the hell was that noise? Who was stomping around in the forest. 

The sound of footsteps were getting louder, this time as Robin scanned the forest he saw a small group of figures moving between the trees.

They were wearing primarily black, but the clothes were torn and matted. Large oval shaped mask covered their faces and goggles obscured their eyes, making them look dark and hollow. The one closest to the pond was holding a large metal.. Thing. The sheen of the metal was reflecting the sun’s light into his eyes between the trees. They were muttering about something or another, his ears able to pick up on the loud cracking of their feet against the sticks and leaves of the undergrowth through the otherwise quiet of the forest. They weren't even trying to avoid them. 

Who were they? It couldn't be- Robins thoughts were cut off by a scaled hand grabbing his ankle, pulling him backwards into the deeper water. Robin gasped a breath of air before the cold water was above his head. 

Robin's eyes stung, even after opening his eyes everything was black in the murky water. In the dark of what he presumed was the cave, he could vaguely make out the shape of Jack's fins curling around him, churning in the water to keep them where they were. A few feet under the surface of the water. Robin lashed out into the water with his hand, trying to grab onto Jack, his lungs had long since started to burn. He was never good at holding his breath, and he definitely didn't have gills.

Jack returned a grab on his shoulder before pushing the two of them towards the roof of the cave. As soon as Robin’s head his air he was gasping for breath, coughing on pond water in the dark. Jack was still holding onto him, pushing him slowly towards the bank of the underground half of the pond. 

“Im so sorry!” Jack said, pushing Robin towards dry land. “Here, wait, just-” Jack went silent, wrapping his tail in a circle around where they were sitting. The small eye-shaped markings that were speckled across his tail slowly lit up with a pale greenish blue light. The glow cast a dusting of light across the cave around them revealing a small open area, sparced with pillars of rock jutting out of the ground or hanging from the ceiling. The pillars were blanketed with the light of Jacks tail, the movement as Jack shifted on the rock made them almost made them seem to move across the cavern. 

The arm that until then had been gripping his shoulder slowly let go, Jack retrieved his hand and coiled his tail tighter around them. 

“What was that!” Robin dropped a hand onto Jacks tail. 

“God, im so sorry” Jack laughed.

Robin caught the siren’s eyes, small rings around his pupils were also lit, the same light as his tail. “What? Those guys- who were they?” Robin shook his head, “why did you do that?” 

“You saw the poachers!” Jack sputtered, “we had to hide!” the lights in the room flickered, “we aren't safe on our own!” 

“I know that, Jack!” Robin rose a shaking hand, they knew where they were. “they're going to kill us!” Robin stood up, almost tripping on Jacks tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I hope you liked this chapter <3


	3. Blaze

Robin was a shivering mess, once again ankle deep in algae filled pond water. He didn't want to say he was used to the feeling, because he wasn't. But he didn't feel the imminent need to complain about it, if that meant anything. Recently it had become a common experience for him, standing in the shallow end of Jack’s pond. He’d most likely been in water more in the last few weeks than the rest of his life combined at this point. At this rate he'd end up training himself to get usual to it. 

He was cold. Correction; his hooves were cold. The rest of him, not so much. In reality he had woken up to one of the warmest days they'd had in awhile. He wasn't really complaining, he didn't have the right to. In reality it was wonderful weather to hang out with Jack in the pond. 

Somehow, despite the fact that the water barely reached halfway up his ankle, Robin’s fur was weighed down with water. It was to the point where he was undoubtedly soaked. In reality, and in any definition of logic, he should not be this soaked from wading in two inches of water. 

But he had his excuses, and he had his reasons. He had one big reason, a reason that had a mop’s worth of brown hair and glowing scales. A reason that had taken a liking to splashing him whenever he wasn't looking. 

“Jack, you are the rudest person, i have ever met” Robin yelled towards Jack, who laughed at him before flinging a handful of water his way. 

Robin turned to splash him back, but his hoof slipped on a rock and he fell into the water. See, he had more than enough reasons. There was one right there. Debatably one of the grander excuses. The fact that he had never truly gotten used to walking on the pebbly algae-covered pond bed. Or standing on it. Or existing within ten feet of the pond without tripping every two minutes. 

Hes lucky he hasn't hit his head on an especially sharp rock with how often he's taken spills down the rocks. 

Jack looked over to him when he thought Robin wasn't looking, quickly hitting his hand against the water, sending a small splash hitting Robin in the side.

Ok. that was rude.

Robin tried to pretend he didn't notice, probably failing from the laugh rocking his shoulders.

Robin spun around from where he was standing, trying to kick up water towards Jack, who quickly swam under the surface of the water with a yelp.

A moment later Jack slowly rose from the water, Robin could see it from the corner of his vision. He decided to pull the ‘i didn't notice’ again, let Jack be as sneaky as he wants. 

Robin watched as Jack slid his hand quickly over the surface of the water, sending a small wave of water towards Robin.

Sad. Robin laughed as he turned around, running his hoof sharply over the water as Jack had done, cutting a wave towards Jack. 

“Wait wait wait, truce truce truce.” Jack laughed, moving taking a step back. 

“Okey okey okey” Robin responded by mocking him. 

“ok, so i'm gonna climb the cliff again.” Jack laughed. 

“You're going to hurt yourself.” Robin laughed. Jack had been trying to reach the top of the jagged rocks by the mouth of the cave every day for the past week. It was sad, but also one of the funniest things Robin had ever seen. 

By the time Jack had made it halfway up the rocks Robin was shaking with laughter, looking over to Jack with crinkled eyes, the siren was hanging off the jagged higher rocks above the mouth to his cave, yelling at Robin to stop laughing at him. 

But of course he couldn't stop laughing, not for the fact that Jack was trying to climb the rocks for like the eighth time that week, his efforts on the rocks once again only resulting in him splashing back down into the pond.

“Kinda hard to climb without legs, isn't it buddy?” Robin laughed, wading through the water towards his friend. 

“I can do it, trust me” Jack said sarcastically, pushing up on his wrist and crawling towards the rocks again, “i don't feel like your trust is in with me here,” Jack laughed.

“Your an idiot!” Robin laughed, “why are you like this, you're going to fall and then you'll get hurt”

Jack jokingly hissed at him as he reached for a ledge on the rock above his head, tail slapping the rock face as he scrambled for another hand hold. 

“I can do it see?” Jack laughed, pulling himself higher with his arms.

“I believe in you!” Robin mocked, watching as Jack struggled to reach another hand hold. 

“Oh thanks,” Jack turned to smile at Robin, losing his hold on the rock, yelping as he fell back into the water below, the water splashing Robin. 

Now he was absolutely soaked. 

“Thanks man,” Robin mumbled, taking a few steps backwards, rubbing the water out of his eyes.

Jack looked like he was about to say something in his own defence when Robin held an arm out, motioning him to shut it.

“Smell that?” Robin asked, sniffing the air.

“Smell what?” Jack sniffed the air exaggeratedly, resulting in Robin having to shush him again. 

Robin sniffed the air again, what the hell was that? It actually smelled like ash, but it couldn't be ash. That wouldn't make any sense. 

Why would it smell like ash? It couldn't be a fire. It couldn't, forest fires don't just happen, it's not even a dry season. 

“It smells like ash,” Robin said quietly.

“What?” Jack asked, 

“ a fire?” 

Robin’s heart dropped, looking towards the sky, he knowticed the blue was cut through by billows of grey smoke, escaping the loose canopy of the forest and into the sky above them.

It really was a fire, the forest was on fire, his forest, his home, the place he had lived all his life, was on fire.

A strong gust of wind tore through the trees scattered around the pond, picking up new ash and still smoldering embers and throwing it towards them. The ash and embers setted hot on his fur and torso.

It was all on fire.

This was not a good thing. 

The forest really was on fire, strong gust of winds twirling embers around them, like wasp on attack. 

Scrunching his eyes, now stinging from the cloud of ashen smoke that spilled out into the air, watching as the licks of fire peaked out of the forest, threatening to reach further out to them. 

Robin looked down at Jack, who was shaking, he looked back up at him, panic swirling in his eyes, “Robin.,”

“We, uh, we have to go, now.” Robin said quickly, taking a step closer to his friend. 

“You- you go, i'll just stay here, it's safe in the water, i'll just go back in the cave.” Jack turned back towards the mouth of the cave. 

Robin barely heard him, still trained on watching for any movement in the forest, his eyes darted after a falling leaf, the leaf was burning as it fell slowly towards the pond, holes eating through the leaf as it landed in the water. It sat afloat for a moment before sinking into the pond, the ash that had collected on the leaf dissipating, more ash having joined on the pond, clumps of ash and debris already collecting on the surface of the water.

“No, you - you can't,” Robin said, finally having processed what his friend had said. 

“Then h-how am i supposed to get out of here?” Jack stuttered, looking up at Robin.

“Can you, you can breath air right?” Robin asked, Jack had been climbing before, he can breath water and air right?

“Yah, of-of course i can breath air, i um” Jack said quickly, looking off somewhere behind Robin.

“Good, good.” “i'll just um, i'll just carry you” 

“But- what if you cant_”

Robin cut him off, wordlessly sticking out his hand to the siren, who stared back up for a moment.

“Please” Robin pleaded,

Neither move as a gust of wind barrels past them, embers buzzing between them as smoke gathers in the air. 

Robin watched as Jack's eyes slowly left his, flinching from the embers flitting through the air around them. Jack shakily nodded before turning to face Robin again,reaching out to grab his hand.

Robin hoisted Jack onto his back, feeling the siren wrap his tail over his flank, clinging to his neck, shaking from the coughs and sputters that shook his ill-used lungs. 

Once he was confident Jack wouldn't be falling off, Robin stared to run, and run, until he was barely able to process the world around him over the lights of the fire and the beating in his chest.

Everything was so loud, the sound of his own hooves colliding harshly with the uneven ground of the forest floor, dislodging the layer of dirt and ash that blanketed it. 

He could feel the skin on his hooves blistering in the heat, barely noticing as bits of embers and twigs cut across his flanks. The pain, just like pretty much everything else blurred into the screaming in the forest. 

His heartbeat pounded in his chest, sounding loud and foreign to his own ears. 

Robin tried to cough as his lungs were once again met with a breath of unwanted smoke and ash, sputtering the centaur struggled to regain his breathing, his pace stuttering as he struggled. 

Robin opened his eyes at a loud cracking, an old andblong dead oak, it's rotten core now blazing with fire, was blocking their path, slowly lurching forward towards them.

Time seemed to slow as Robin froze, watching the flames peak through the rotten bark of the trunk . 

Robin reared forward, kicking his legs forward to try and regain his balance in his rush to stop. Robin could feel Jack pull on his neck tighter, pressing his face into his shoulder. 

Leaping over the log, Robin could vaguely feel the soft fur along his underbelly burning over the heat of the fire.

His hooves slipped over ashen leaves as he struggled to maintain his rushed pace through the forest. 

Running between the trees of the charred forest, his flanks rubbed against the blackened charcoal covered trunks, leaving jagged black Marks over his light brown fur. 

Cutting through a group of trees, fleix struggled to a stop, finding himself in a small valley yet to be touched by the flames.

A perfect circle surrounded by a line of rocks cut through the flames, completely barren of evidence of the fire, excluding the layer of smolder and ash that had blanketed everything in its path. 

The underbrush only a few feet past the circle was almost non existent, nothing was left but a charred out pile of burnt twigs. 

Robin jerked his head to the side, tripping over his own hooves as he tried to get sight of the whole of the fairy circle, he must of missed them coming out here to make it, the ashen meadow was adorned with large blue and purple flowers, stones were piled up in the center in a seemingly obscure pattern. 

The barely conscious siren draped across his back whined once he noticed they stopped, his sparkling blue fins, now cut through with burns, the darker blue ends of the frilly blue fins burned white, the heat having burned small holes through them.

The orange flames were slowly eating away at the fairy circle, licks of fire crawling over the line of stones.

Robin took a step back instinctively when he saw a group of figures walking towards them, they looked like mellows, to arms to legs, all of that.

They had clear pear shaped coverings on their faces, the mask were connected by tubes, running from what he assumed was their nose towards large canisters on their backs.

But it was over their faces, over them, they looked seperate like they could take them off. 

The strangers looked at him for a moment, Robin stared back before kicking forward and galloping into the woods. 

Were those the poachers? Didn't Jack say they were mellows.

Those weren't mellows, mellows can’t control fire.

Robin started coughing, he didn't seem to be able to catch his breath, his breath seemed to be stuck in his throat.

He ran until his lungs screamed at him to stop, the corners of his vision turning black.

He ran into a break in the covering of trees, his vision was starting to tunnel, he couldn't feel the pain from his burns anymore.

A figure was staring back at him from a few yards farther into the clearing, the figure called out but Robin didn't hear it, before running towards him. 

Robin’s vision turned entirely black as he felt his legs buckle under him, he felt Jack's cool fins sliding off of his back onto the charred ground below.

 

*****

 

Everything was dark, he could tell his eyes were closed, but for the love of god, Robin couldnt open them. 

Everything hurt.

Everything really hurt.

Well it didnt really hurt, he just felt numb, mainly.

His whole body felt numb. 

Robin was stirred from his thoughts by a voice, speaking up from his left side.

“Is he still asleep?”the voice asked.

“No, he was burned pretty badly but Tyler should have healed him pretty well, he should wake up soon.” A new voice, this one much closer to him, reported back.

Robin was hit with the memories of what happened suddenly returned to him. 

Who were the people talking, were they the people Jack had been talking about? The poachers, they were the poachers werent they? Had they caught them?

He had carried Jack, Jack.., where was he?

“Where's the green siren?” the first voice piped up again.

“He's still in the ward with Tyler, his burns were worse than the centaurs.”

Robin woke again what must have been a few hours later. 

Blinking into the bright unnatural light, Robin tried to adjust his eyes.

His eyes adjusted and he could see a figure sitting in the corner of the room, presumably they were a poacher.

They were fairly short, compared to Robin at least. 

He had short black hair that was pushed to the side of his head. He was looking to the left of Robin, he seemed to be studying the ground by his own feet.

What was he doing? What were any of these strangers doing?

They hadn't killed him yet. So that was.., promising. 

The mellow must have looked up at him while Robin hadn't been paying attention. Because they were now locked in a staring contest, except it seemed neither wanted to win. 

The mellow stood to move closer to him.

Before Robin could stop himself he whined uncomfortably, trying to scoot farther away on the makeshift bed they had him sitting on. 

The mellow looked at him questioningly before taking a step back. “You ok man?”

Robin just looked up at him for a second before realizing he wanted an answer. “Why.. did you talk to me” Robin decided on after a moment. If that counted as an answer.

The mellow stared at him with that overly confused slightly concerned face again “why not?”

“Why would a poacher speak to me?”

“Because i'm not a poacher?” the mellow laughed.

“Then who are you?” Robin asked, they clearly weren't a myth. 

“Im Mark” the mellow said, slowly taking another step towards Robin.

Robin didn't jump this time. 

“Im, im not one of the poachers that burnt down the forest.” the mellow smiled warmly at him, but his eyes betrayed confusion.

“Then where are they? The poachers?”

“I'm sorry…” the mellow, Mark, looked down towards the floor again. “We lost them after the fire, i'm sorry.”

Why would they do that?”

“I.., i don't know.” the mellow looked over him for a moment, “they have to reach their quota, i guess.” Mark laughed. 

“What?”

“You know! They have to kill a certain amount of tameables or, or people! Anything they think is ‘magical’ or whatever they say!” 

“What?”

“I don't know, it doesn't matter, they don't matter.” “but we have our own quota! And were the good guys! So we save everyone!”

“We?”

“Were a patrol.” another mellow piped up from the doorway, he was taller than Mark, but was smaller. He locked eyes with Mark and shrugged. 

The mellow looked up quickly, “We save people, were part of the sanctuaries and were here to stop them!” 

“That's why we're here!”

“where .. where is here”

“Oh, well right now your in our tent, sorry it's still kind of falling apart, we were having trouble putting it up”

The mellow, Mark, Mark looked far too embarrassed to possibly be lying, he looked like he was apologizing for some catastrophe, instead of just upset his easily built shelter wasn't perfect. 

“But sorry we couldn't really travel all the way back to the city in one night, we were having trouble traveling past the forest. “

“The city?”

“Yah, opal? Where else would we go?”

“What?”

“Opal, one of four sanctuaries? Ring any bells?” Mark said, voice unsure as to whether Robin was joking.

“Do you really not know?”

“Did you like hit your head while running from the fire?”

“What?”

“Here, do you remember what city you're from? Maybe the suburbs, did you live far away?”

“I lived in the forest.”

Mark laughed at that.

“No i did?”

“You., you weren't camping?” Mark had furrowed his eyebrows and kept looking over to Ethan.

“Camping?”

“You know, when you spend the night in the woods?”

“I spend every night in the woods.”

“No,i mean,” Mark looked up at Ethan, than back at Robin again, “one second.” Mark waved his hands at him as he grabbed Ethan's arm and dragged him out of the tent. 

A few moments later Mark walked back into the tent without Ethan, he looked dazed and slightly distracted. 

“Hey.. Mark?”

Mark looked up quickly cocking his head to the side. 

“Wheres my friend, the siren.” 

“Oh, he's in the medical tent with Tyler

“Is he ok?”

“Yes! He's going to be ok, his fins were a bit singed through, but Tyler's the best in his healing class, he’ll be fine.”

“Oh, ok.”

“So, why do you have us here?” Robin asked, sinking into the makeshift bed. 

“Well right now we're fixing you up.”

“Oh, will we be going back to the forest when you're done or?”

“Um..” Mark scratched the back of his neck “it's still kinda,, on fire,” 

“But, we'll just take you back to the city anyway, you're welcome to stay with us there, and they'll probably want to make sure you're ok too.”

“Oh, ok… i guess”

“Sounds good”

“Hey! Mark! Were leaving” a new voice called from outside the tent.

Mark looked up at the noise, then turned back to Robin “that's just Tyler” Mark explained. 

“We'll probably be getting back on the road soon” “here, can you stand up?”

“Robin nodded, tripping on the tattered quilt that had been thrown on the makeshift bed.

Another mellow, presumably the voice from before, opened the tent flap. “Time to go guys,” “Robin, right?” Robin nodded “yeah, so can you walk, i'd rather not carry you this time.”  
Robin stood up from the bed, expecting the pain of his burnt and blistered hooves against the ground, only for the pain not to come. 

In fact most of the burns that he was sure scattered his flanks were gone. 

“What?” he mumbled to himself, turning around to eye the back of his flanks, bare of even burnt hair, black charcoal Marks still littered his fur. 

“Yah, were all covered with silt, well shower when we get to the city.”

Robin just responded with a questioning look. 

Before Robin could question further, Tyler motioned the two others out of the tent. 

Robin pushed past the tent flap, The smell of smoke was stronger outside than it was in the tent. 

Ethan was sitting by a smoldering fire, haphazardly putting it out with a water bottle. 

“Way to prevent forest fires, smokey.” Mark said from behind him.

Ethan looked up from what he was doing, shrugging off the comment “it helps”

Ethan capped off what was left of his water bottle and threw it towards a small pile of bags leaning against an oak towards the edge of ‘camp’ if you could call a single tent and a drenched fire a camp. 

“Hey Ethan?

“Yeah?” Ethan called from where he was rummaging through the bags.

“We're gonna need your help with the siren.” Mark called over to him.

“His name is Jack” Robin said. 

“Oh thanks! Anyways Ethan can you enchant something for him.”

“What?”

“He can't walk Ethan, he just needs an flight enchantment.” Mark supplied. 

“He doesn't already have one?” Ethan looked almost shoked.

“I don't think so,” Mark turns to Robin “does he?”

“I have no idea what you're talking about” Robin shrugged. 

“Oh, um, Ethan can you like show off for a bit”

Ethan stopped rummaging through the bags “oh, sure.”

“So i'm an enchanter i can…” he paused, a confused edge to his tone as he spoke, as if he was more used to having things explained to him, instead of the other way around. “I can enchant things.”

Robin just cocked his head at him.

“Umm. i just enchant.. Things.” Ethan tried to explained.

Robin was just confused, it probably showed on his face.

“Like anything really, well just objects, no like alive things.” Ethan explained.

“Then how are you going to ‘enchant Jack’” Robin asked after a moment. 

“Oh, i usually enchant the object and tell it to do something, here, just let me show you.”

Ethan slid off the drawstring that hung from his shoulders. 

Ethan kneeled out onto the grass and motioned Robin and Mark to sit down as well. He opened the drawstring as wide as he could and pulled out a small light blue blanket, it must have only been about the length of his forearm, so it was no wonder it fit in the bag. 

Ethan then proceeded to pull out a light blue book, with pages falling out and bookMarks poking out at odd angles. 

He delicately placed the book towards the corner of the blanket, following it by a pencil he must have taken out of the bag when Jack wasn't looking. 

He waved a hand at Mark who was about to voice him to hurry up, quickly pouring out and organizing a few more items, namely: another pencil, two loose rocks, and a stuft chimera plushie. 

Finally he reached into the bag and pulled out a wooden stick, it had carvings on it, a lot, but Robin couldn't really identify what they were. 

Ethan picked up the stick, almost dropping it as he tried to twirl it between his fingers, earning a snort and a mumbled ‘good job’ from Mark.

Robin was still watching Ethan intently. Ethan picked up the pencil he placed next to the larger carved stick. “So i already enchanted this pencil, i'm calling it the pencil of finding, because it finds stuff.”

“Very creative name.” Mark laughed. 

“Here wait,” Ethan held up the pencil, flat on his palm. “ok pencil ‘find Mark’”

The pencil rose a couple inches from his hand, a light blue light falling off of it and pooling on the blanket like frozen fog. 

The pencil spun around in circles for a moment, more light pooling around their legs, slowing to a stop and falling back into the palm of Ethan's hand, the graphite end pointing at Mark from across the blanket. 

As soon as the pencil fell to the ground the light vanished, dissipating into the light of the sun.

“What does the other pencil do?” Robin asked, still watching the pencil in Ethan’s hand, half expecting it to jump up again.

“Oh, i just use that one to write.” Ethan half-mumbled. 

“Anyways, it's not really anything to special, it like takes a lot out of me to do it though? When i made this pencil i like passed out for like an hour, but it was one of the first things i enchanted, so if i made it again now id probably just get a killer headache” Ethan laughed. 

“He passes out all the time while doing this stuff, and im usually the sap that has to carry him while he's conked out.” Tyler said, walking over to where they were sitting on the ground, holding Jack over his shoulder, who looked displeased to say the least.

“Aren't i lucky to have you.” Ethan smiled up at him.

“Hey can you like let me down?” Jack asked.

“Yah, in like a quick minute” Tyler said.

“Ok, Jack, do you have any jewelry that you'd like, be ok with wearing like always.” Ethan asked. 

“um. I have this bracelet my mom gave me when i was little? I like already wear it, like always.” Jack said, sliding off the silver bracelet and handing it to Ethan. 

“Yeah, that should work” Ethan looked down at the sliver bracelet before tapping the tip of his wand to it. “I enchant this bracelet to let a siren swim in air as if in water.” the  
same fog-like blue light pouring out of his hands and pooling over the grass.

Robin noticed Jack quickly catching his eyes as Ethan finished.

Ethan looked back up them for a second, handing the bracelet to Jack before immediately passing out. 

Mark, who had moved to stand behind him while he was doing the enchantment quickly caught him before he hit the grass, slinging him over his shoulder. 

“Is he ok?” Jack asked, worry clear in his tone.

“Nah, he like passes out after doing enchantments, it has to do using all his power or something, he'll be fine.” Tyler said.

Jack looked up at him for a second with wide eyes, Robin shrugged in reply. 

Jack slid the bracelet back onto his wrist, Immediately falling from holding onto Tyler, flapping his tail wildly as he tried to balance himself. The same blue light started to fall out of the bracelet, seemingly flowing back into the bracelet and then settling on a soft glow. 

It looked just like when he had been swimming, but without the water. So exactly as Ethan had said it would happen.

Jack quickly swam over to Robin, reaching to grab his forearm for support.

Jack hung from Robin’s arm for leverage, “well it worked?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the gangs all here


	4. home

Jack looked down at the solid silver bracelet on his hand, it was currently reflecting light brightly into his eyes. Ethan, the enchanter that was part of the patrol that saved them, had enchanted the bracelet so he could fly. Well swim, really, but it was in the air. 

Jack looked over to the others, Robin was trotting along next to the guy he now knew as Mark. Robin seemed to like that one a lot, so it only made sense for Jack to like him too. Jack flicked the long fins that branched off his tail as he flew closer to pick up on their conversation.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Robin asked. 

"Opal city" Mark said, looking up at Jack for a second, but continuing his conversation facing Robin.

"Do you all live there?" Robin asked, smiling up at Jack. 

"Yeah, I've lived there all my life” Mark said. 

Not really caring for the conversation, Jack flew over the one who they called the healer, who had been talking to him while ‘fixing the burns on his tail’. Jack really didn't remember last night all to week, but he remembers the pain of his tail being replaced with a dull numb feeling before he passed out. But the burnt patches of his scales were gone, so it must have worked, whatever it was. He was still currently carrying the unconscious enchanter. If he remembers correctly he had said his name was Tyler before, hopefully he had gotten that right. 

"hiyah" Jack greeted as he moved to walk next to him..

"Heyo" Tyler said. 

"Is he gonna like wake up" Jack asked, looking at the enchanter, who was still very unconscious.

"Probably" Tyler shrugged.

 

The light caught off the bracelet again, catching his eye, how cool was it that this dude made this bracelet and enchanted it to make him fly? That's amazing, and terrifying. What else could these strangers do?

Well it's not like he had unlimited power or anything, just enchanting his bracelet left the enchanter, Ethan right? It left him conked out for what must have been hours by now. 

Jack mumbled a goodbye as he swam away from the healer, catching up to Robin.

The trees were growing more sparse and ragged, and he was lucky he didn't have feet like the others. They were currently dragging said feet through an inch of mud and other gross things.

Jacks never been to this part of the forest, he'd never even left his pond. Were they even in his forest? Robin would know. 

“hey Robin?” Jack caught his friend's attention as he moved to swim at his side. 

“Whatcha want Jack?” Robin looked up from where he was trying to shake muck off his hoof.

“Have you been to this part of the forest before?”

“No? Not actually, I'm not sure this is even our forest.” Robin was looking around himself at the trees. 

“It's not” Mark supplied from Robin’s other side. 

Jack swam past Robin, so he could talk to Mark. 

“So howsa’...” Jack paused, hopefully he had his name right. “Mark.” 

Mark laughed “i’m doing great Jack”

“That's good,” Jack mumbled, not really knowing how to go about continuing the conversation.

Mark laughed again, it was the type of laugh that almost forces you to laugh as well. Jack smiled, deciding he liked this Mark. 

“hey hold up, he's waking up!” Tyler called from behind them, causing them to walk back over to where he had placed Ethan down on the leaves. 

“Ey, what happened, why are we in the forest?” Ethan said slowly, eyes immediately catching Tyler's, who was still standing above him. His gaze drifted towards Jack and Robin before he continued, “Oh, that's why.” 

 

“alright, get up, we gotta keep walking” Tyler said, pulling Ethan back up by the wrist. 

“Thanks.” Ethan laughed, trying to catch his balance for a moment. 

They walked on through the forest, the trees slowly spacing out until instead of mud and trees they were surrounded by an expanse of rolling plains. The trees barely dotting the landscape. 

The sun had moved to where it was right above them in the sky. Shining down on them. Usually around this time Jack would have swam into his cave, the only light being from the lights along his tail. 

To say the least it was weird without the canopy of trees blocking out most of the sun. 

Another thing that was strange, he'd never been out of the water for this long, his hair had dried completely, puffing up slightly on his head instead of slick to his forehead with water. 

It was… dry.

Jack let his eyes drift from his conversation with Robin, looking over the landscape in front of him. They were on a hill, so he could see how the land that was laid out in front of them was cut off in unnatural squares.

“Hey what's that?” Motioning with his arm vaguely.

“What?” Mark responded from his other side. 

The thing over there.. the thing that looks like a mellow cabin, but it's bigger."Jack pointed at the wooden structure. 

"The farm?" Mark sounded confused. 

“Sure" Jack said.

"It's a farm..” Mark said slowly before looking over the farms that were laid out over the fields. “were getting close to Opal at least" Mark commented, turning back to Jack. 

Wait is that a tameable farm or a mellian animal farm." Tyler asked, joining the conversation from where he was a few feet back with Ethan. 

“Tameable farm..." Mark furrowed his eyes, looking over the farm’s land. "clearly... they're farming bovenfische."

 

“Really? Those always scared me as a kid" Ethan said, following Tyler into the conversation. 

"Same like? A cow with a fish head, why do they even exist" Mark complained “seriously, i'd rather sit in a room with twenty of the scariest half-snake half-lion half-other scary animal tameables, than get within twenty feet of one bovenfische.” 

"Mark you are a bovenfische" Tyler laughed. 

 

Mark laughed sarcastically "Excuse me, I am a fischbach, not a cow fish." He laughed again “no correlation.” 

"They're still terrifying." Ethan said. 

“But Mark you like actually have fish in you name" Tyler said.”

"Yah why aren't you the siren?" Ethan laughed.

"I hate all of you" Mark said, walking ahead of the group.

"They're still like super terrifying... like look at its soulless fish eyes." Ethan said, they were now walking along what the others called a fence, it's what was separating one farm from the others.

Within the confines of the fence were a herd of what were apparently bovenfische. They were grazing peacefully, at least as peacefully as something with a fish head could graze. 

"I think they're kinda cute" Robin smiled, peering over the fence at the animals. 

“"Of course you do, horsebreath" Jack laughed, swatting Robin on the head.

"That was rude" Robin yelped.

The group looked up as a gargley moo rang through the countryside. 

"Ew" Tyler said. 

"Agreed" Mark laughed. 

Jack heard wings beating as a woman in about her thirties flew down to them.

 

She was an angel, and had large light brown wings kept close to her sides. 

 

"What are you boys doing on my land?" She said. 

"Just passing through." Mark said, clearly as politely as he could. 

"Ok y'all hurry on now" the woman said, looking over the group. 

The angel stopped and stared at Mark for a second.

"Oh! Mr. Fischbach! Oh dear, I'm sorry about how rude I acted, well um, welcome to our farm." She said laughed, taking a step backward. 

Mark looked at the ground awkwardly for a second "sorry ma’am, we're on our way back to Opal now."

 

The woman took a step back before nodding, “sounds good!” She said. 

What's that about. Jack looked up at the woman, who was looking over them.

"Anyway? How long have you youngins been walking?" The woman continued.

"A couple hours."Mark nodded.

"Y'all've better not been In that forest. I heard about the fire last night, its a shame." She said.

"Yes ma'am we weren't" Mark mumbled.

The woman's gaze softened when she looked at the tired group.

"Why don't yall stay for a bit and rest, it's the least we could do." The woman said, she was looking at Mark, not really the rest of them. 

"Thanks ma'am" Mark said 

The angel lead the group to a small farmhouse. 

Jack watched the pair of what the woman called cockatrice in the front yard jumped around near their coup, he's probably met more new creatures today than in his entire life, maybe he should have left his pond along time ago.

He followed the others into the house. 

Another woman was inside watering some plants.

"Oh hey Sarah, who's the boys" she smiled.

"Some city boys that were staring at the bovenfische" The woman, Sarah explained

"Who doesn't to be honest, they're terrifying" the other woman laughed. 

Ethan laughed at that. 

"You boys want something to drink? We got tea and sprite, we might have some Capri Suns somewhere.” The second woman laughed. 

"Tea thanks!" Tyler said. 

" Lucy? Could you pour some tea for these boys, get the good stuff?"Sarah said. 

Lucy laughed as she grabbed a pitcher from the fridge. 

"So what are y'all doing out all the way out here?" Lucy said, pouring tea in the glasses Sarah had laid out.

"Just on a mission!" Mark said quickly. 

"Oh really? Aren't you boys important, going on a real mission." Lucy laughed. 

"I can't believe we have such a strong and brave patrol we have right here in our very home luce!"Sarah laughed.

"Thanks for everything ma'am" Mark said after they finished their tea.

"None needed, y'all better get heading if you plan on making it back to the main city by sundown." Sarah said, looking at the group. 

Mark hummed in agreement as they headed off. 

"So Ethan?" Jack asked, looking at his bracelet.

"Yessum?" Ethan said, looking up at Jack. 

"How'd you think of this?" He asks, pointing at the silver bracelet.

"Oh..." he paused, "that's what they make for anyone who can't walk.

"Oh cool" Jack hummed. 

“Pretty much” Ethan laughed. 

"Have you ever made something up on your own?" Jack smiled.

"Yeah... I enchant things a lot.. I made the emotion stones on my own." Ethan said, deep in thought. 

"Your what?" Jack asked. 

Ethan laughed "the stones i enchanted"

"Oh great magician please tell what you named this one" Tyler interrupted, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"I called em emoti-stones" Ethan said proudly. 

"Emo stones Amazing" Tyler mocked.

"Anyway what they do is," he paused taking off his drawstring and rummaging through it, taking out two small river stones "ok so I give one to someone else, here Tyler take this" he handed him the stone. 

The stone that was still in Ethan's hand immediately swirled with a light yellow, the grey of the stone washed away by the splash of color.

Ethan turned to look at his friend, who had finally noticed the stone. 

"Oh woah that's pretty." Tyler mumbled to himself.

Ethan looked over to Jack, smiling. 

"So yah! They change color depending on the emotions of the person holding the other!" Ethan laughed. 

"Woah.."

"Yah I guess the basics are that yellow means happy, green means surprise and red means anger? Other colors mean their own things but that's the basics." Ethan explained, rolling the stone in his hand, “oh! And white means the other person is hurt! I thought it would be useful for patrols!" Ethan continued after a moment

Ethan's eyes finally strayed back to the stone in his hand. 

Jack looked at it as well, it was still swirling with different shades of yellow. Swirls of other colors would occasional swirl into the mix, splashes of green, orange and even a soft pink.

 

"Those are very cool!" Jack said.

"Thanks Jack" Ethan laughed. 

"Anyways" Jack smiled at Ethan "do you like always pass out after enchanting things or is that only sometimes?" 

 

“You know, it's like anyone using their power, it like takes a toll yaknow? I'm just not the strongest already so i pass out easily. “ Ethan smiled up at him "Anyways yah i can do small things without passing out" he picked a leaf off the sidewalk "get a killer headache though"

 

Grabbing his wand from his bag, Ethan held it up to the leaf.

"Watch this!" He said to the others 

"I enchant this leaf to fly into Mark's giant forehead, not stopping until I tell it to.” the same blue-grey fog from before fell from his hands as he talked to the leaf. 

 

"Go" he told the leaf

Immediately the leaf flew out of his hand, flying straight at Mark, who was talking to Robin about one thing or another.

Mark tried to swat it out of the air, only for it to fly back up and ran into his forehead again.

"Ethan!" Mark screamed.

"Leaf, stop" Ethan yelled.

Immediately the leaf fell to the ground, back into the mass of dried leaves. 

“Ethan you are the worst person to ever exist!” Mark yelled back before he continued his conversation with Robin.

The farms slowly grew closer together and more prevalent. The once lonely streets bustled with people. 

Jack ran his hand through his hair as he looked around, "there is a lot of people..."

"Isn't it great?" Mark said happily. 

"yeah, definitely.” Jack said, walking a bit closer to Mark.

"Oh.. well you'll like the main city better anyway." Mark said. 

"Is there less people?" Jack asked. 

"Try again" Mark said. 

"More people?" Jack asked. 

"Yah" Mark said. 

Jack hummed 

"Don't worry the school itself is up on the mountain." Mark said, turning to look towards the mountains that towered in the distance. 

"Guys look!"Ethan called from a few steps back.

"What" Mark yelled back.

"Come on we're almost home!" Ethan said, picking up the pace.

"Really?" Jack asked. 

"Yah look we're already at marl!" Mark said pointing at a road sign.

"Oh cool." Jack mumbled. 

A loud rumbling shook the ground as a large metal object sped past them.

"What the hell is that?" Jack yelped, jumping a few feet back. 

"The car?" Mark cocked his head to the side, laughing. 

"Oh..." Jack watched after the car "that's cool."

"Guys look! It's a mcdonald's, the first sign of civilization" Ethan said. 

"Mm we should eat" Mark said. 

"What?" Jack asked, not fully understanding. 

"Fast food place" Mark explained. 

Jack hesitated not fully understanding "okay"

"Ok let's go"Mark said. 

Mark looked along the road in both directions before he dashed across the road, Ethan and Tyler running after him.

Jack looked over to Robin and shrugged before flying after the others.

He could hear the clopping of Robin's hooves hitting the hard ground as he sped up, quickly passing the others.

"No fair! Your horse butt makes you faster" Mark laughed

"And you got a head start!" Robin laughed. 

Ethan ran up to the brightly covered building. 

"Come on I'm starving!" Ethan laughed

Tyler laughed as he followed him into the fast food joint

Brightly colored booths and tables were scattered around, a few other people were in the building eating or talking. 

“You two can go find a table?” Mark nodded at Robin and Jack “we’ll order”

Jack looked out at the tables before following Robin towards a booth in the corner. 

After a minute or two, Ethan walked over to their table holding a tray with multiple paper-wrapped foods. He handed Jack what he called a “fish sandwich”. 

"Come on Jack, its fish just eat it" Mark said. 

"Jack, youll love it" Ethan laughed.

Jack laughed at them before biting into the sandwich. 

It tasted strongly of salt, like more salt than hed ever eaten at one time salty. It also just tasted strong. 

It was pretty good, to be honest it was really good. It was definitely better than the fish he caught in his pond. 

"Oh alright!" Mark said, smiling again. 

Jack turned to look at Robin, he couldn't help but smile as his friend picked at the "oatmeal" the others had bought for him, clearly only interested in eating the cut strawberries and blueberries that sat on top. 

"Come on man you gotta try it" he chirped, looking up at Robin.

This got the attention of the others who were busy stuffing their own faces. 

"Yah come on Fe eat the oatmeal, it's delicious I promise" Mark laughed.

Jack smiled as Robin finally took a bite of the oatmeal.

"This. This is very good." Robin said matter of factly. 

Jack laughed at his friend. 

The rest of their meal went pretty fast, after a moment Jack was helping Ethan throw the trash and used papers away. 

Mark was still talking about one thing or another as they left the building and back into the street. 

"We're almost there!" Mark called to the group, pointing at the gigantic mellow.

"Woah" Jack heard Robin gasp behind him. 

"We’re in Opal!" Ethan said, walking over to them. 

There was a lot more people in Opal, the huge buildings had thousands of people bustling around them. 

More different types of people than he had seen in his life walked past him, hurrying. To one place or another. Jack saw some other sirens who were flying along the road like he was. There were more of those cars, slowly moving along the street. After wandering the city for what felt like hours they approached a large circle with a fountain in the middle. Mark had called it fountain square, which was a stupid name for a circle. 

There was an intricately carved statue of a woman in the middle. She was posed with her hands raised to the city, the water flowing from under the pedestal. 

who's that? Jack thought as he was ushered up the winding steps that lead from the circle.  
The steps wound back through another forest. Jack looked at the forest around them, at the top of the stairs he could vaguely see what looked like a castle, pillars of stone reaching up into the sky. Large dark-wood buildings littered the “campus” as Mark had called it. 

"Ok gills catch-up" he heard Mark call to him from higher on the steps.

Kicking his fins harshly, Jack cut through the air swimming as quickly as he could. 

"Wait what are we gonna do once we get there" Tyler said, turning around to look at Mark. 

Mark laughed, "personally, I was planning on barging in there and exclaiming that we were the heros everyone's waiting for" Mark started to walk up the stairs backwards while talking, only tripping a little bit. “Everyone will give us rewards and everyone will clap” his voice was slick with sarcasm as he talked. 

"Pmft. Yes we are the heros Opal has been waiting for." Ethan laughed. 

“I can hear them now ‘wow carnelian patrol! Thank you so much! You’ve saved us all!’” Mark continued. “You're the most powerful patrol we've ever had on campus and now you get all the medals!” 

Robin laughed "Marky, you're my hero" 

"Thanks fe" Mark laughed as they walked up the last steps.

Jack could see the school in full, Stone and wood mingled to make a look that could only be described as “a castle masquerading as a log cabin” 

People were bustling around the campus, needing to go one place or another. Late for something or far too early and trying to kill time.

"Welp let's just go to the office" Mark said. 

"Talk to the Captain?" Tyler asked. 

"Sure" Mark shrugged. 

They walked through large opened doors into the lobby of the school itself, the largest building.

Mark motioned the group over to the office, a small alcove cut off from the rest of the lobby. 

A woman sat at the desk sitting by the entrance, "oh hello Mark, I see your back? Guessing you want to see captain?"

"Of course" Mark nodded. 

The woman smiled and motioned them to the door behind them. 

The group walked into the room.

A man sat at an intricately carved desk, a surprised but relieved expression painted on his face.

Mark lead them into the room, walking a few steps ahead. 

"Hey.. this is Jack and Robin," Mark motioned to him "we… we-” Mark was interrupted before he finished. 

"Mark, Where have you been?" The man said sternly, interrupting him. 

"Sorry Dad." Mark looked at the ground. 

"Sorry doesn't cut it, do you know how much you've missed? Skipping school is a real problem. I expect better from you.” Captain had moved to look at Ethan and Tyler. 

The man sighed.

"Mark..." he paused looking at his son again "why did you run away from school" the man said. 

"We didn't w-we were just-!" Mark tried to defend himself.

"Enough. We will talk about this later." The Captain interrupted. 

The captain looked over at Ethan and Tyler.  
"You're first years and you know you could have gotten yourselves hurt." Captain said. 

"Sorry" they chimed. 

"Now who are you two," the captain asked Jack and Robin, his gaze softening quickly.

"Jack and Robin sir" Jack looked at the ground. If Mark was scared of this guy he should be too right?

“Where are you from?”

“The forest.” Jack said quietly.

Captain just furrowed his eyebrows before turning to Mark.

“We found them in the forest, the one that burnt, but they don't remember like anything.” Mark explained

“But i do remember, i've lived there all my life” Robin spoke out next to him. 

Captain didn’t respond to Robin, instead he nodded silently. 

"We'll be able to find you a nice place to live" He paused, looking at Mark, “well take care of you for now” Captain said.

" you two can stay here in Opal for now, you could very easily join a patrol." Captain continued. “It all depends.” 

“For now you all should get some sleep, i'm sure you've had a long couple of days.” 

"Mark." Captain says gruffly, looking at his son. 

"Yes dad" Mark nods.

"Go take Jack and Robin to your dorm." Captain said, motioning his son's patrol out of the office 

"Ok." Mark nodded politely. 

"Good. Now get a good night's sleep you're going back to school tomorrow." Captain yelled after them as they left his office back into the lobby.

"So where are we going" Robin asked. 

"The dorm" Ethan said. 

They were all pretty tired by now, they had been walking for the past two days. 

"Carnelian" Tyler added, looking down at Ethan. 

Jack hummed, swimming closer to Mark as they crossed sidewalks into a separate smaller building. 

Mark led them down complicated wood paneled hallways, as if he knew them by hand.

Turning through corridor after corridor as if it was nothing, as if he knew the layout by heart, Mark confidently lead them to carnelian. 

"Ok so you all will love the dorm!" Ethan said, skipping on his feet, and almost tripping. 

Tyler laughed before cutting himself off "wait where are you all gonna sleep tonight, the dorm is only decked for three people?"

Mark looked at the others, smirking before dashing down the hallway.  
"I call my own bed all to myself!" He called back, laughing. 

Tyler and Ethan looked at the other for a moment before dashing down the hall themselves. 

Intricately carved wooden pillars flashed by him as Jack swam after them as fast as he could.

Jack had caught up to Mark, swimming by his side, the others had slowed down by now and were leisurely talking while they walked. 

He was picking up speed when Mark dodged to the right suddenly. 

Jack struggled to stop himself before running into him. 

"Jesus dude!" He laughed

Mark laughed as he turned to the door that has stopped him.

It was wooden and had the same carved Markings as the rest of the hall.

The outer reachings of the door were carved with figures of mellows and myths and tameable creatures. They were doing everything from menial task like writing something or playing sports or even just laughing to more intricate things like painting to specific things like a carving of a Phoenix flying past a galaxy deer. But he couldn't shy from the fact that every single one seemed to stare at him, from the beautifully carved siren that looked a little to much like him to the small Jackalope under a tree. 

Tearing his eyes away from the meaningless designs, Jack looked up the door where the word "carnelian" was carved intricately into the old wood, it to seemed to boast an impossible amount of detail. A bright red stone was above the name, shining brightly. 

"Cool-" Jack's words were cut off as Mark threw open the door. The room opened up first into a large room, to one side was a kitchen with scattered appliances and tacky tile flooring, and the other a couch and a tv. On the far wall of each room sat another door.

Jack chased after Mark as he ran further into the dorm.

Mark went into the second room beyond the kitchen, in it were a set of two bunk beds and a reading chair with a lamp. 

Mark was posed proudly on top of one of the mattresses, smirking at him. 

"No ones stealing my mattress!" He announced as the others walked in. 

"Ok.. king of the mattresses" Robin laughed. 

"King?" Mark smirked. 

"I am the king of the mattresses." Mark said sarcastically 

“Ok so how are we gonna ration out the beds?” Tyler asked, looking from the beds to the new guest. 

"We could just sleep in the living room?" Robin asked.

"No. you're the guest" Ethan said.

"You two could just share a bed?" Mark said matter of factly. “My beds top bunk was empty anyway because there's only three of us. 

"No." Ethan coughed.

"Yah.. no" Tyler laughed. 

"Ok... Tyler you and Ethan can just sleep in the living room then." Mark said. 

"Aight" Tyler mumbled before walking to grab some extra blankets. 

"Here Jack you can sleep in my bed" Ethan said, motioning to a twin that was decked out with blue blankets.

"Mm nice" Jack said, flicking his fins nonchalantly. 

Jack woke up in the middle of the night, he could still hear the noises of the student in other houses talking, that was weird, something he definitely wasn't used to in his lonesome. 

Mark was mumbling in his sleep, something about a test in first period. 

"A nose bleed why would he get a nosebleed during the test?" Mark mumbled to himself from the next bed over, he must be awake. 

Jack looked at him, confused before deciding to just try and go back to sleep.

Jack laughed as he threw his face back into the pillow, "this bed is comfy, haveta thank Ethan" he thought to himself as he drifted back into sleep.


	5. The search

The water from the fountain splashed in the background, Jack never acknowledged it before but the sound of water really was calming. Jack wished he was calm, maybe the water was helping, maybe it reminded him of his childhood or something. But alas the siren had to admit he was panicking, quite a lot in fact.

Rob was gone. Jack was alone in the big city, people were rushing all around him doing one thing or another, talking loudly.

Jack was just a bit scared, a lot scared. Very scared. Robin where are you. Jack spun around where he stood kiting a hand through his hair

Jack sighed before starting to walk through the ocean of people, find wrapped as closely to his sides as possible. He’d have to find Robin eventually right? He'd be safe once he found Robin.  
Jack could hear the drum of all the people around him talking to each other about one thing or another.

He'd find Robin without talking to anyone because he was not going to interact with all these loud strangers.

After wondering in circles for what felt like hours jack realised he couldnt find Robin. He needed someone to help him. Of course he did. Looking around, jack saw a couple of myths sitting under a tree pretty close. They were both faun, and they looked nice enough. Jack swam towards them, greeting them with a curt nod.

"Ummm... hi" jack said, swimming back a bit. 

"Hi!" The boy greeted happily, "I'm mat and this is steph!" The faun continued.

"Hiyah!" Steph smiled. They seemed nice enough. 

"Watcha need?" Mat asked.

"Oh! Umm have you seen a centaur around? I lost em. His named Robin, brown hair with white blanketing pattern." Jack rambled.

"Haven't seen him but we'll help you look if you want" Mat said, looking towards steph.

"Thanks!" Jack said, a little taken aback by how nice these strangers were being.  
"No problem!" Mat smiled.

"You going to the school jack? Haven't seen you around." He asked.

"Nah I'm just visiting." Jack said, looking at the sky.  
"Cool! What sanctuary are you from?" Mat asked.

"I'm not.. from any of the cities I'm from the forest that burned down." Jack said, half listening. He was still scanning around him for any sign of Robin.

"Ok, i guess." Mat said.

"Yeah.." jack mumbled.

"Well I hope you like it here!" Mat laughed.

"Thanks..." jack said, looking at the grass.

"So where did you last see him?" Mat asked.

"Uh.. I was sitting by the fountain when he just wandered off" jack laughed nervously.

"Oh well he's probably at a cafe somewhere or something." Steph said.

Steph looked at her phone for a second and then shot straight up.

"Mat!" She yelped, grabbing his arm.

Mat hummed in question.

"Dude!" She said, shoving her phone in his face.

Mat stared at the phone for a second before looking up at her.

He looked scared? Excited? Maybe both.  
"You okay?" Jack asked.

"I got accepted!" Mat said, all but jumping up and down in excitement.

Jack, excited as well even though he had no idea what they were talking about celebrated with the two faun.

"So what did you do!" Jack laughed.

"I was chosen to be on myths to mellows!"

"Congratulations!!" Jack paused "what's that?" he added.

"Christian Mathews' show!!" May smiled!

"Cool! Who's that!!" Jack asked.

"The guardian turned beloved American actor?" Mat said, as if everyone should know that.

"The man who single handedly created the MFF!" Steph said.

"The what!" Jack asked.

"The myth funding foundation!!" Mat said, seemingly starting to understand jack didn't understand what anything was. About time someone did. 

"The charity he created to get mellows to donate to myth!" He explained.

"The man made mellows like us more!" Stephanie said.

"Not all of them hate us!" Mat said happily, Putting emphasis on the all.

"And I'm gonna be on his show!!"'Mat said.

"Cool!! What's it about!" Jack smiled.

"It's a show where he introduces a guest each day! Like a talk show!" Mat explained, jumping from hoof to hoof.

"It's not even anyone cool it's just random students from the sanctuaries!" Stephanie added.

"The mellows just eat it up!" Mat laughed.

"They like think we're really cool or something!" Steph laughed.

"And I'm gonna be on the show!!" Mat yelled.

"Cool!" Jack said happily before pausing "Wait." Jack said, confused.

"Why are the mellows doing that aren't they like the poachers?" He asked.

"No of course not, a lot of them are pretty nice I guess" mat shrugged.

“Theyre just more humans that dont have any powers or arent myths or anything,” Mat shrugged “its pretty rude to treat them badly, even if theyve treated us badly in the past. 

"So where do the donations, to the charity go?" Jack asked.  
"Oh you know like taxes and stuff, stoping poachers, the usual." Mat shrugged again.  
"Cool" jack said.

"Yep!" Mat said, still very exited,

"Sorry we can't help you find Robin! We have to go get ready!" Mat was hopping around again.

"We're going to New york!" Steph yelled as she hugged mat.

"Goodbye guys!" Jack laughed.

The two faun practically skipped away from him, mat turning back to yell "By the way! Our patrols name is beryl!"

"Goodbye guys!" Jack screamed back as the two were swallowed by the wave of people.

Jack isnt entirely sure what he just witnessed, but they sure did seem nice. He liked them, maybe he'll ask Mark if he knew them.

Now to find his missing centaur

The people in the city bumped into jack as they rushed to wherever they wanted to go, as he swam through the crowd of people.

The chitter chatter of the crowd talking happily droned on, as he was soon surrounded by colorful stalls. 

The endless street of shops seemed to House everything from various hanging meats to baskets of fruit. There seemed to be foods he had never seen before.

He passed a street sign that told him he was in the shopping district, which would have been apparent, even if he didn't see it.  
Some of the stalls he passed had people cooking, he could smell the layers scents of all the  
different foods. He saw a young naga flipping something similar to pancakes in a stall with a  
green roof, her serpentine tail wrapped cozily around the plastic chair she was siting in, sipping her coffee and writing the day's menu on a chalkboard. Many of the stalls had people cooking, chalkboards scrawled with menus and prices.

He could smell fish, but like, it was different than the tiny cave minnows he always ate in his cave.

Following the smell he ended up at a stall with a yellow tarp, it had intricate ink drawings of mountains painted across it, and an old harpy stirring something in a pot in the corner.

That smells like really good" jack thought, Swimming towards the stall.  
Jack walked up to the greyed harpy, he had feathers scattered along his arms, along with long cut scares that seemed faded. He was older, about the age of Captain. , 

"hello fishy!" The harpy said, wrinkles under his eyes, turning towards the siren.

"Hey!... um... I was wondering? What are you cooking?" Jack asked, looking into the stall.  
"It.. smells good"

"Fish head soup!" The old man laughed, motioning to a cut fish frying in the other side of the tent.  
"Cool.? What's that" jack asked.

The old man looked up slowly, his face surprised, he cocked his head, smiling. "It's a traditional harpy dish! My stall is called taste of the mountains" he laughed, motioning towards the chalkboard above him, extravagant mountains carved above the menu, as promised, the day's special was fish head soup.

"Oh! Ok... what's fish head soup." Jack asked.

The old man smiled, "your not from around here are you?" He asked.

"No.. I'm not from the cities..." jack said slowly.

"Cool! What country are you from then?” 

“Im, im just staying here for now, poachers burned down the place i lived. 

The old man's eyes darkened and he smiled softly, "I understand young man, many share that sad song." He motioned to the cuts along his arm with a gloved hand “poachers took alot from me too.”

“Oh, im sorry” jack said. 

"Nah, dont be sorry! Why do you think this city's standing!" The harpy said.

Jack nodded.

"So what's in the soup?" Jack asked.

"Well right now just warming chicken stock, but it's your lucky day young man, wanna help me start up the dish of the day?, I'll pay you in a fresh bowl when I'm done?" The harpy asked.

"Sure!" Jack chirped, momentarily forgetting his search for Robin as the old man motioned him into the stall.

"Names Harvey by the way!" He smiled.  
"Jack" the siren smiled.

"Ok son, could ya cut the mustard greens for me?" Harvey asked, placing a cutting board in front of him.

“Um, sure” Jack mumbled, vaguely mimicking what he had just watched Harvey do. He was surprisingly good at cutting things, for someone of had never done it before. Hopefully harvey wouldn't notice.

Jack cut the veggies carefully, looking over he saw Harvey cutting the ginger, carefully cutting each slice like it was the most important part of the dish.

Harvey was humming, it was the kind of tune that reminded jack of home, even though he'd never heard it before.

"Good job son, im gonna wash em up, couldja mash the sour plums for me?" He said, switching jacks plate with a bowl of plums, and something to mash with.

The fruit reminded him of Robin, he should bake some fruit thing with him sometime, maybe mark and the others would help him with it.

Jack frowned down at the plums, this was harder than he thought. 

"Mashing the plums upsetting you boy, I swear there just fruit, nothing fishy about it"

Harvey's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

Jack clumsily smashed the plums, every once in awhile Harvey would look over to him and smile, the harpy turned back to washing out the greens, still humming.

"Aight so I have ready the evaporated milk so I think we're ‘bout there!" Harvey said, grabbing the milk and throwing it on the table by jack.

"Just gotta rinse the rice noodles and we're golden!" Harvey said, moving the bowl of noodles under the sink water.  
"Ok son, I'm gonna start heating up the oil in the wok, just need you to throw in some ginger every once in awhile." He said, pouring some oil into the huge pot over a fire in the back of the tent.

"How much" jack asked, watching the oil boil for a moment.

"As much as your heart desires friend!" Harvey said, pouring in a dash of sesame oil from a small clay oil bottle, the oil splashed out of the wok, and scared jack.

"Just stir fry it until fragrant!" Harvey said, quickly showing jack how to toss it.

"Ok!" Jack said, the fish smelled way better than even the bluegill that sometimes wandered into his old cave.

The old harpy smiled, pouring in the chopped tomatoes and mustard greens.

"Son, could ya reach over and pour in the mashed sour plums?" Harvey asked.

Jack smiled as he poured the bowl plums, the mix was sizzling quietly.

"Ok! We should be good!" Harvey smiled, pouring in the chicken stock before covering the wok.

"Thanks for your help boy! It's great to have a fresh pair of hands around!"

"Thanks... for letting me help!" Jack smiled.

"Oh it's ok fins! Today's batch will be made with that much more love!" The old man laughed.  
"Alright! Now that it's set we just gotta take out the veggies, ginger and plum seeds from our broth!" Harvey smiled.

"Could you add the fried fish head?" Harvey asked, still moving around wooden spoons and pots. 

Jack smiled as he poured the fish into the soup, the broth splashing slightly.  
The soup smelled really good.

"It's good ain't it! Don't worry I'll let you have a bite when we're done!" Harvey called from the other side of the tent.

Harvey smiled as he removed the fish from the wok, setting it aside.

"Allright, now just to add the evaporated milk and fish sause!"

"Cool." Jack said.

"Ok son, I'm gonna return the vegitabels to the soup, could you add some green onions as we go..." Harvey paused with a laugh "the more onions the better, onions make everything better."  
Harvey laughed before continuing "Forget love, onions are the most important ingredient." 

"The most important ingredient to life." Jack said.

"Your getting it sonny, you'll be a master chef in no time." Harvey said.  
"And we're done!" Harvey said, placing some styrofoam bowls across the serving table at the front of the tent.

Jack helped the man carefully garnish each bowl with the apparent "perfect portions of fish,  
soup, cooked noodels, and blanched lettuce, for the perfect bowl of fish head soup."

Grabbing two bowls, Harvey walked them over to the table at the back of the tent, motioning jack to sit in one of the metal folding chairs.

"Now to try the fruit of our labor!" Harvey smiled.

Jack smiled as he ate some of the soup.  
It was delicious, it had so much more flavor than anything he had made for himself in the cave, which to be honest half the time wasn't even cooked, just whatever he could catch.

"You like it?"Harvey asked.

"It's amazing!" Jack chirped, still stuffing his face.

"Good! This is one of the best batches yet." Harvey laughed.

"Needs more onions." Harvey said thoughtfully, taking another spoonful.

"It always does?" Jack asked.

"It always does." Harvey laughed back.  
**********  
"Be on your way now son! Show off your amazing cooking skills to your friends!" Harvey called to jack as he left, turning to help a customer.

"Thanks for letting me help!" Jack called after him.

The crowds of people filtering through the colorful stalls seemed much less overwhelming to jack, it seemed comforting more than anything. He liked the hassle of it all, really. Jack haphazardly swam through the crowd, what a nice old man, he'd have to take the others down to get something to eat, maybe Robin would want to come. Robin probably wouldn't want any soup but he is a real picky eater. Looking back people had already started plileing up at the shop, must be a popular one. Not really looking where he was going, jack swam into someone. 

This first thing jack saw was that the stranger was another siren. He saw he flash of red scales in front of him.

Jack looked up to apologize but was cut off, his "sorry" interrupted about halfway through by a sharp intake of breath.

Two large brown, grey, and black wings were curled behind her back, protruding from a special wing-cut light blue sweatshirt that said “Opal sanc”. in large golden lettering.  
Dark blue and purple scales glittered in between the grey and brown feathers. Her tail had a zigzag pattern of dark purple scales running across the red tail. Golden brown feathers were sparse across her tail too, two long fins ran along the sirens sides, connecting at the bottom in a sharp point.

"Woah... you're a bird" jack said, astonished.

The psuedo siren laughed at his exclamation. "Yes.. I am?" 

"W-why." Jack was stunned.

"Your not from around here are you?" The siren asked.

"No?" jack answered for the eighth time that day.

"I'm a flying fish," the siren paused, smiling at jack's confused expression "a hybrid, angle and siren."

"Cool." Jack smiled.

"What's your name new guy?" The hybrid asked.

"Jack." he answered.

"Cool. Names Pam!" she said.

"Whatcha doing in the city?" Pam asked, guiding jack out of the crowd  
.  
"Well at the moment, I'm looking for my friend Robin, he's a centaur." Jack said, happy to be where he could actually hear the people he was talking to.

"Oh! I know just the people who can help! They know where everything is in Opal!" Pam smiled.  
"Cool." Jack said, following Pam as she started to walk. 

"Ok! So they're probably at the harpy's roost." Pam reasoned, rather quickly, it was apparent these mysterious people spent most of their time there.

"It's the best cafe in Opal." Pam explained."They've got those little... apple things... like little apple donuts.." Pam struggled.

"What?" Jack laughed.

"What are they called." Pam said, laughing, "I can't remember! What's it called!!"

"I don't know!" Jack answers, now wondering what the "apple donut things" were.

"Anyway, anyway, I'll show you when we get there, those little apple donuts are my favorite things." Pam said, leading jack through the twist and turns of the city.

"Ok so it's just down this turn, Hey there they are, Hey! Amy! Signe!" Pam yelled over the crowd, swimming towards the cafe.

"I knew they'd be here, come on!" Pam motioned to jack as she swam faster.

Jack noticed the hybrid used her wings when swimming, which made her marginally faster than jack.

The two girls that were sitting at one of the tables outside of the cafe looked up, the harpy with brown hair, looked up through dark sun glasses, she was smiling. She had large grey wings that resembled that of a pidgeon, propped against the table and holding a cup awkwardly. 

"Whatcha want robin!" The other girl yelled over to them, she was a fairy, large orange butterfly wings shining in the sun behind her.

Pam motioned quickly between jack and the others, “jack, this is amy and Signe”

"This dude." He motioned to jack "needs help finding his friend." pam said.

"He's probably either in a bar or back up at school, why?" Signe said, matter-of-factly. 

"What patrol are you in?" Amy asked.

"Not in one, staying with Carnelian though" jack said, shrugging.

"Oh! You know tyler, ethan, and Mark!" Amy's face lit up "say hi to them for me!"  
Signe elbowed the fairy, who shot her a look "anyway, yah, can we help you find your friend" Signe asked.

"Uh... sure...thanks?" Jack said.

Signe smiled into her coffee as she took a sip "so, jack, this kid, Robin, where do you think he'd be?" She asked, the plumage over her ears were twitching as she stared up from her cup.

"I... uh, don't really know? I don't live here." Jack laughed, flicking his tail absentmindedly .

"This is Opal, the dudes probably in some other cafe" the monarch fairy, pointed out blankly.

"Well duh, but there's like hundreds around here." Signe cut her off, taking another sip of her coffee.

"Wait, Signe, he's probably at hooves and swallows." Amy pointed out, motioning vaguely with the hand while still holding her coffee.

"Where?" Jack asked.

"The centaur cafe, it's super cute." Amy said, stretching her wings as she stood up.  
"The one with the birds everywhere?" Pam asked, she looked like he was trying to figure out where it was.

"Yah with the golden swallows" Amy called back from the trash, where she was throwing out her empty coffee cup.

"They're so cute" Signe said.

"So where is that?" Pam seemed to have given up finding it herself.

"We'll take you there fins" Amy laughed, pushing up from her chair, the metal of the chair's legs scratching on the pavement.

"Wait... hey, let me finish my coffee?" Signe complained."

"Just drink it while we walk Signe" Amy said dismissively.

"Fine." Signe laughed.

“An apple fritter!” Pam yelled from where she was sitting. If jack had not been there for their earlier conversation he'd probably be super confused. Which is probably why Signe and Amy were now giving him incredulous looks. 

"Since y'all ate without me, I'll just eat my apple fritter at swallows." Pam didn't sound like she was actually complaining, or annoyed for the matter, she just sounded like he was mocking them.

"Your the one that got lost in the city we've lived in all our lives." Amy mocked him.

"Hey, I may have gotten lost, but I found us a new friend" Pam said, taking fake offense.

"Yes of course, what would we do without you" Amy laughed.

"Let's go find new friends' friend and stop annoying him." Signe said, throwing away the tray from their breakfast.

"Oh your not annoying me." Jack laughed.

"Oh I know, I'm just making fun of these idiots" Signe laughed.

"The food there is like really good jack, we have to stop and eat there." Pam said, walking beside jack as they wandered down the busy street.

Jack laughed as he followed the others.

"Ok so this building over here, jack look, okay, this one over here it's so beautiful man, I love it, it's so tall" Amy said, pointing vaguely at one of the buildings that stretched onwards into the sky, jack didn't bother to question which one she was talking about.

"Ok so it should be somewhere over here? It's huge and wooden, we'll know when we see it." Amy said.

"The aesthetic is so good." Signe laughed.

"It's like, all wooden and stuff with little birds flying around." Amy said, Pam hummed in agreement at the statement.

"The place is all like centaurian right? So they have huge pillow things? Because horses you know? It's super cool." Pam said.

"They're hard to sit on at first but, they're comfy." Pam laughed.

"The food is so good dude, like they have this amazing tea, it's like honey and I love it." Amy said, excitedly.

"It is really good. Like everything is." Signe agreed.

"There it is! Huge tree, large phoenix chilling out front squawking at the passersby, can't miss it" Amy said.

"Woah." Jack said quietly, then entire building was a mixture of light woods and bricks, the place was a stark difference to the grey buildings around it.

Thin trees coiled over the walls and tangled through the wooden panels that lined the floor length windows.Small birds with with feathers lined with gold scrambled over the branches and dived gracefully over the tables, jack could see a couple swallows hopping onto tables and cheeping at the customers for scraps of bread. The chirping of the small tameables sounded like bell chimes, the standing music mixing with the chatter of the people inside.

"Right? The whole aesthetic is beautiful." Amy laughed, pushing open the door.  
Inside sets of wooden tables fitted neatly in the cafe, each with its own sets of colorful centaur pillows.

Jack's eyes scanned over the crowd until they landed on a familiar light brown pelt and darker brown hair.

Robin was sitting next to two other centaurs, one had black hair and the other was blond, they were both really tall.

"Hey Robin." Jack said as he swam over to his friend.

"Jack! Hi! Look at this place! Isn't it beautiful!" Robin said, clearly excited.

Jack smiled at him, "yah this place is beautiful!" He laughed.

"There so many centaurs!" Robin said, dopey smile still ever-present on his face.

Jacks eyes wandered to the other centaurs talking happily amongst themselves at the table, for a second he almost let the smile fall from his face.

Jacks mind raced with thoughts.

Robin had already found centaur friends. While jack was getting scared by random people and running around looking for Robin, he had just found some new friends.  
Robin doesn't need him. He can stay with the other centaurs and be perfectly happy. Meanwhile jacks scared to talk to their sirens. He's not even like robin or really any of the other sirens. He doesn't know how to be a siren. He's been alone all his life. He isn't a siren. He's just jack. He didn't grow up in a family in the city. Just alone. Jack should just go back to living alone in his stupid cave. Maybe poachers will come and kill him. That sounds nice, they could finally finish off the pod of sirens they tried to wipe out when he was five or so. Then at least whatever poacher ends up wearing his scales as a necklace will look nice, at least someone will need him, if not more than to complete their outfit, that's at least more than he's ever met to someone while not a necklace.

Thoughts raced through jacks head, eventually they were cut off by Robin talking.

Jack really didn't catch the first part of what the siren said but he finished it with "back to dorms?" And a small smile, so jack just nodded slowly.

"Hey jack, gonna introduce us to your friend?" Jack heard a voice behind him yell.

"Oh! Robin, this is Pam." Jack said, motioning back to Pam and the others.

"Woah, you have wings." Robin said, experiencing a similar reaction to jack, when he first met him.

"Wow? Really, I never noticed" Pam mocked as he motioned Robin to meet the others.

"So this is Amy and Signe, and yah, we go to the school" Pam smiled.

"Cool, I'm Robin!" Robin said.

"Yah, we know, we've been helping your 'friend' over here search for you all day" Signe laughed.

Jack smiled at her thankfully for a second before turning back to Robin who had gasped in surprise

"I'm so sorry scales!" Robin said, hitting jack with his elbow "I was by the fountain and rhett and link, those two centaurs that were showing me around were like, hey kid, haven't seen you around, you going to the school? Because they like graduated a few years back or something and wanted to show me around town, they're pretty nice." Robin rambled.

"They sound really nice" jack cut him off, laughing.

"Wait it's already six?" Robin said loudly, checking his phone.

"Jeez, I have to finish my history project with mat today!" Robin said.

"Mat the faun?" Jack asked.

"Yeah? Know him?" Robin asked.

"I met him earlier actually! He got accepted to the show thing" jack said.

"Really?" Amy said, moving closer to them excitedly "I'm so excited for him! That's so cool!"

"Well I have to go back to the dorm" Pam said.

"I'll go back with you rob" Signe said.

"Don't call me that." Pam said.

"Aight pamela" she mocked her.

"I don't like you." He laughed

"Same" Signe laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out @mythtube on tumblr! I have arts and talk about this au there!


	6. Eggs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jack... is a cute boy, and I love him

Jack huffed sourly, rubbing his face on his pillow. He had been tossing and turning for the past hour or so and he didn't really know the time. Jack frowned over to the side of his bunk, rubbing his eyes as he scowled over to the electronic clock that hung on the wall above the door.  
The slow blinking of the red light stared back at him, jack could feel that if this clock was capable of human emotions and also happened to be capable of expressing said emotions it would most definitely be laughing at him.

It was 3:30.  
As in three thirty am, meaning he'd barely slept four hours after getting home from the city with Robin.

Maybe it was even less time, he can vaguely remember losing precious sleep to getting up in the middle of the night only to fall back asleep again after ten minutes of tossing and turning.

Only, now he really didn't feel like he wanted to, or physically could, fall asleep again.  
Jack was messing with his pillow, either as a vain attempt to fluff it up and make it more comfortable or trying to punish it for not being comfortable in the first place, either way, it wasn't helping.

Punching his pillow into the mattress, he heard someone else getting up, followed by the annoyed grown, someone else must have not gotten much sleep. It was followed by feet lazily hitting the floor.

Looking over the side of his and Robin’s bunk, that they had stolen from Ethan and tyler. He saw Mark bending over to pick something up off the floor before half hazardly walking to the door out into the kitchen.

"Wonder where he's going." Jack thought to himself, watching as the light from the door slowly closed behind Mark.

Jack rolled off the side of the bunk, expecting to float easily to the floor and swim after his friend, instead falling to the floor from the top bunk and landing weirdly with his right fin folded under his tail and cramped between his upper body and the floorboard. Why did they give him the top bunk again? He's used to sleeping literally on the floor of the cave.

Jack pushed himself up from the ground, yelling at himself softly as he finally registered that the bracelet Ethan had enchanted for him, the one that let him swim in the air, made specifically to combat this problem, was noticeably not on his wrist.

He must have taken it off at some point while he was sleeping, he can vaguely remember his half asleep self finding it annoying.  
Great. It's three in the morning and jack is flopping around like the land barren fish he is, trying to find his magic bracelet, which is probably on his bed and holy crap how is he supposed to climb a ladder with a fish tail and why did they even give him the top bunk this was a horrid idea-

He was cut off by noticing the literal horse in the bunk under him huffing in his sleep, he was trying not to imagine a horse climbing the ladder with no magic Ethan-related aid.

Ok maybe he did imagine that, and it sounded hilarious, but jack wouldn't wish that on his friend.  
So jack sucked it up and pushed himself up on his elbows, knowing he probably looks like a seal.  
Jack huffed, knitting his eyebrows as he reached for the first ring of the ladder, dragging himself closer to the metal ladder. Reaching up a couple rings with his other hand he pulled himself up, his tail uselessly flapping on the floor underneath him, he probably looks absolutely stupid, but he only had like two feet left to climb and frankly, he was proud of himself, those weeks of trying to climb the rocks on the edge of his cave really did work out for him. Kinda, he was still having a ton of trouble.

Honestly, jack was surprised he had the upper body strength to do this, or the stamina, frankly he's astonished he was able to climb a 6 foot landlocked ladder on his own.

Flipping unceremoniously onto his bed, Jack felt around the blanket, searching for his bracelet, the silver ring had to be under the blanket somewhere, it had to be here somewhere.  
Ok it had to be here somewhere, it wasn't, it really wasn't, which means jack went through all this work for me absolutely nothing, jack closed his eyes and smiled, slowly shaking his head as he laughed bitterly at himself.

Still laughing, jack looked down off the side of the bed, which now looked a lot higher than it did a minute ago, how was he even supposed to get down again, the thought only making him laugh more. "You know what, never mind." Jack said quietly to himself, giving up and rolling off the bed again, landing hard on the wood flooring below, still laughing bitterly at himself.

Being to stubborn to call for help, jack propped himself up on his elbows and crawled towards the door to the kitchen, knowing he looked extremely stupid.

Leaning on the door, jack turned the knob, resulting in the door creaking open beneath him, and jack falling to the ground again. Looking up from the ground he met eyes with an extremely confused and slightly worried mark, hair messy and still in his pajamas, drinking something that appeared to be coffee, but knowing Mark, was probably just chocolate milk. "Hey" Jack mumbled, crawling over to a chair at the table and sitting down like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Hey?" Mark laughed, confusion showing through his face.  
Jack just smiled up at him.  
"Ok I guess" Mark said slowly, deciding not to question it "why. Are you awake?" Mark asked, smiling, letting out a confused laugh but saying nothing on the obvious.  
"Iduhno, couldn't sleep I guess" jack shrugged, trying to stay balanced on the chair, his tail wrapping around the legs of the wooden chair for support.  
Mark laughed, taking a sip from his mug.

"So what are you doing out here?" Jack asked, almost falling and catching himself on the table.  
"  
I don't know, was just gonna drink some water or something, I wake up like this all the time, I woke up at like two" Mark laughed.

"Oh no," jack said, a little bit to occupied with trying to right himself in the chair to fully understand what Mark told him.

"Hey jack?" Mark asked.

"Yah?"

"I have two questions." Mark said.

"Shoot?" Jack laughed. Placing both hands on the table to steady himself.

"First; why did you crawl in here." Mark asked. 

"Oh, I lost my bracelet Ethan enchanted for me." Jack laughed, lifting up his wrist and twisting it for effect.

"Oh! I found a bracelet on the floor this morning? It's yours? That makes sense I guess, oh my god I'm so sorry." At this point Mark had handed jack the bracelet, shoulders shaking with badly hidden laughter.

"Next question!" Jack brushed him off, laughing aswell, putting on the bracelet, the familiar feeling of floating falling over him.

"I was wondering? My dad said you and Robin should go shadow us at the school? I was wondering if you wanted to shadow me? It'll be fun, I'll show you around the school and stuff." Mark said.

"Shadow?" Jack asked.

"It's Just like following us around school all day, like see what it's like." Mark explained.

"Sounds fun dude." Jack said.

"Ok! Cool! Tomorrow.. er, today.. later, it will be fun!" Mark laughed.

"So just wanna hang out until the others wake up?" Mark asked, getting up. "I'll make scrambled eggs" Mark added as he walked over to the fridge.

"Oh can I help?" Jack asked, getting up from the table to follow.

"Sure dude!" Mark called back as he swung open the fridge.

"So how are we going to do this" jack asked, staring over Mark's shoulder as he reached into the refrigerator and brought out an egg box.

"Oh first, umm, can you crack these eggs into that measuring cup for me?" Mark asked, taking a glass bowl out of the cupboard.

"Oh... ok?" Jack said, not really understanding the 'eggs' mark handed him, how was he supposed to crack these things?.

They looked kind of like small white rocks.

"Just hit them on the side of the bowl jack" mark said from his left, messing with the fridge again.

Jack made an affirmative hum and then hit the egg on the side of the bowl, causing it to crack into pieces, the inside of the egg was goop and it leaked onto his hands, "what" jack said quietly, trying to shake the goop off his hand.

"Woah! To hard jack! You're supposed to not let the eggshells in the egg!" Mark said, running over from the oven and taking the other eggs away from jack "here let me show you."

"Why is it goop!" Jack said, still rubbing his egg covered fingers together.

"It's an egg dude," Mark looked at him for a second before running over and grabbing a towel, 

"dude, here I'll show you step back" he said wiping off the egg from his hand.

Jack just hummed again, moving to make room for Mark in front of the counter.

"Here, you pick one up and," mark picked up an egg and mimicked hitting it against the bowl, "you just hit it lightly" he emphasized the word lightly.

"Alright, I guess" jack laughed, picking up another egg and mimicking hitting the side of the bowl, looking up at Mark as he did it.  
Mark shook his head, laughing softly as he turned back to cutting whatever he had taken out of the fridge.

Knitting his eyebrows, jack rolled the egg in his hand for a second, this should be easy, he just has to hit it on the side of the bowl, lightly.

Jack bit his tongue between his teeth as he lightly hit the egg, this time it didn't even crack, trying again a little harder, jack hit the egg again, this time the egg cracked down the center, slowly pulling it apart with his hands, he let the yellow part and the clear goop drop into the bowl.  
A piece of white eggshell was floating in the clear part.

"Did you get it jack?" Mark said, walking over and picking up the bowl "good job! Better than my first try cracking an egg" Mark said, after examining the bowl for a second, grabbing a fork from the drawer on the island. After picking out the eggshell he threw it in the trash.

"Ok now I'll just crack the rest, could you get a pan from the drawer, the one under the oven." Mark motioned with his arm over to the oven.

Jack smiled at Mark, glad he didn't have to crack eight more of them.  
Pulling open the drawer underneath the oven, he was greeted with the sound of metal hitting metal, and a pile of what he assumed was pans, some of them were really deep and some were long sheets and others were shortish.

"Long pan or short pan?" He asked, after staring at them for awhile.

"The 'long pans' are called pots jack" Mark called back, not looking up from his work.

"Oh, pot or pan Mark?" jack asked.

"A pan"

"Oh ok," jack said, pulling out a pan and walking over to Mark, who had somehow already cracked all the eggs.

"Jack could you whisk these while I set up the oven?" Mark asked, handing jack the bowl of eggs and a fork.

Jack nodded, starting to slowly spin the fork in the bowl, mixing, he did this with Harvey, the harpy he cooked with while in the city, he could do this.  
By the time mark had gotten back he had popped most of the yellow parts and the eggs were now more of a yellowish goop.

Mark smiled down at the poorly mixed eggs for a second before taking the bowl and whisking it properly as he walked over to where he had been cutting before. "Ok, now we just have to be ready to add the ham and cheese while we cook it." Mark said, sitting the bowl down on the counter.

"Go grab a spatula?" Mark asked, messing with the oven as he talked.

"A what?" Jack asked plainly, only getting a laugh in response as Mark crossed the room, opening a drawer he pulled out another utensil, it was like a spoon but it was flatter, a spatula.  
"Now we just have to scramble the eggs."

"Scrambled eggs!" Jack laughed, that's what they were called! And that's how you make them! Wonderful!

"Yes?" Mark laughed, pouring some of the eggs from the bowl onto the pan.

Jack took a step back from the stove, it was sizzling now, hopefully that meant the eggs were cooking alright, Mark was messing with them with the spatula, every once and and a while he would throw in a handful of cheese or ham. He looked like he was concentrating, his tongue was sticking out a little bit, the same way jack noticed he did when he was concentrating before.

"Jack get a plate!" Mark said, motioning for jack to hurry, still messing with the eggs.

"Ok!" Jack said, swimming over to grab a few plates.  
Jack hurried over to mark at the stove, placing the plates on the counter next to him.

Mark smiled as he grabbed the plates and piled eggs on each of them, handing a couple to jack he asked him to set them all on the table while he got up the others.

Jack decided to just sit down at the table, listening to the sounds of Mark yelling something along the lines of "time to get up you filthy animals" song from the living room.

Cooking was fun, he'd have to do it again sometime.

After theyd all finished eating they walked back to the school. 

Jack watched as Mark tripped on the bit of wood that's underneath doors, laughing as he followed the others out of the dorm.

"Why do they even put those there!" Mark complained, throwing his hands in the air.

"What did you even trip on?" Ethan laughed as he pushed Mark from behind, cutting past him through the door.

"You wouldn't even have this problem if you just didn't have any legs" Jack laughed, turning backwards in time to see Mark's reaction.

"You fish," Mark said sarcastically, jabbing jack in the side with his elbow as he pushed forward past him.

"That's not even a valid excuse, I have like double the legs, and I don't trip like, half as much." Robin laughed, trotting up to walk along the other side of Mark, a wide smile plastered on his face.

"Yeah... but, you're like more stable, or something." Mark laughed, pushing Robin away from him, who pretended to trip and fall away.

Robin just stuck his tongue out at him as he trotted forward.

"You horse." Mark shot, laughing.

"You power!" Robin mocked.

"It just doesn't have the same effect!" Mark shot back, shaking his head.

"We're almost to the school! Can't wait till you guys can see it!" Ethan said, jumping a bit while running up to jacks other side.

"Yah I'm sure they'll love it eth" Tyler laughed from a few feet behind the others.

"I'm still salty neither of you decided to shadow me," Ethan said, voice laced with faux anger.

"Don't worry," Robin laughed, "I for one, would have chosen Mark too if Jack hadn't have taken him first.

Ethan broke character and started laughing at that, "how could you, look at Tyler, you've crushed him"

"Honestly, you're forgiven, I would have don't the same thing." Tyler laughed.

"Guys, now I'm flattered," Mark said sarcastically, cutting in front of jack to walk backwards in front of Ethan.

Jack smiled over at his friends, his friends, currently caught up in some sarcastic comedy bit, or whatever they referred to this game of "who can stay in character and keep this bad joke running the longest"  
"Never mind, can I switch to Ethan?" Jack said, looking up at Mark, gaining a few laughs from a couple of the others.

"Too late fish stick, you're stuck with good old mark!" Mark laughed, jabbing his friend in the side.

"Good old marker" Ethan laughed.

"Good old, dry-erase marker" tyler added.

"Excuse all of you, I am clearly a sharpie," Mark said sarcastically.

"You're CrayZart at best mark" Ethan laughed.

“Wow, not even crayola?” Mark faked being offended. 

"This joke is terrible and I want better friends," Tyler paused before laughing "better jokes and better friends"

"You can only have one Ty, sorry," Ethan laughed "you gotta choose"

"Anyways!" Mark jabbed jack in the side with his elbow to get his attention again, at this rate by the end of the day Jack would have bruises along his ribs from the playful jabbing.

"We've gotta get to our lockers and stuff and then get to first period." Mark paused a couple feet from the door, watching everyone else walk in after him.

"I have history first so jack we should go to my locker then get there or we'll be late," Mark said.

"Where's your locker?" Jack asked, looking at the numbered beige lockers that lined the walls between classrooms.

"I'm seven fifty-five" Mark commented, waving at a couple random students Jack didn't recognize as they walked through the crowd.

"So what do you do in school anyways?" Jack asked, struggling to maneuver through the crowded hallway as fluidly as Mark, and failing miserably.

Every few feet he would accidentally bump into someone or someone would bump into him, he kept saying sorry but it didn't even seem like the others noticed.

Looking ahead at Mark he noticed he was barely bumping into anyone, or at least he wasn't reacting when he did.  
Jack could hear mark laugh ahead of him "you learn things jack, it's a school, that's what they're for"

"I know that Mark!"

"I don't know jack, it's just school, you'll get it once we start."

"Descriptive"

"You'll get it once you see!" Mark repeated.

"Fine" jack laughed.

Mark stopped at one of the lockers, 755, his locker, right.

"Ok so, this is a school, and you learn things in it, and stuff"

"Yes, I get that far."

"Yes, the students, us, we have classes in seven periods and in each one we learn different things?" Mark said slowly as if deliberately choosing each word.

"Ok so in history you learn... history, duh.. and then next we have science and then Tameables," Mark stumbled over his words, kneeling down to open the lock on his locker, which was one of the bottom ones.

"Tameables?" Jack asked.

"Yah, the taming of like little animal dude things, like dragons and jackalopes and stuff" he explained, still messing with the lock.

"Oh, sounds cool"

"Yah! I'm sure you'll like it, it's one of my favorite classes" Mark commented absently, still unable to open his locker.

"Hey, Mark?"

"Yes?" Mark said, smiling to himself as he finally got his locker open, swinging the door open.  
"Will we be in classes with Robin and the others?"

"Yah, they usually try to pair up people who are on the same patrol, it's to promote team bonding or something," Mark stopped talking to mess around with some of the books in his locker.

"Oh cool!" Jack said.

"We'll also be with a ton of people from other patrols and stuff, so that's fun, most of the students here are real nice, you'll like em." Mark said, still taking out a couple books from his locker and placing them on the floor next to him.

"Do you have any classes with Robin?" Jack looked down at Mark who had looked up from his locker at him, "the siren?" He added after a moment.

"Yah, he's part of the patrol right next to us in the dorms," Mark stopped talking to pick up the small pile of books and notebook, "it's aquamarine, why?" Meh asked, looking back up at Jack.  
"Do you?" Jack paused for a moment, "have any classes with him I mean."

"Yah he's in science with me?" Mark looked like he was thinking for a moment before smiling up at Jack "a lot of his patrol is in that class actually? Amy and Robin are with us then but we don't have a class with Kathryn until gym." Mark said, getting up from the locker and motioning Jack to follow.

"Oh cool, can't wait to see em again"

"Wait, Jack, how do you even know aquamarine?" Mark asked.

"Oh, I met them all in the city yesterday"

"Well aren't you just a social butterfly" mark laughed

"Ha! Yes. Most definitely!" Jack rubbed his forehead "I am so good at talking to people and it definitely wasn't more like they forcibly made me their friend or anything." Jack laughed.

"You nervous wreck" Mark was laughing again.

"No. Mark you don't understand," Jack started laughing, rubbing his neck "I was so nervous to talk to him I like, made a fool of myself."

"What did you do Jack?" Mark laughed.

"I looked him right in the eyes and," Jack was interrupted by Mark laughing "Mark. Mark, it doesn't sound like you're listening, mark" Jack was interrupted by Mark’s laugh again.  
"Dude! I'm not even to the embarrassing part yet!" Jack laughed "listen, dude, I looked him dead in the eyes and said "you're a bird... why" Jack quoted himself, exaggerated the way he said it for comedic effect.

"That's hilarious! Dude!" Mark laughed.

"He actually just laughed at me!"

"I'm laughing at you now!" Mark laughed, "I can't wait to see him so we can make fun of you together."

"I hate you so much, Mark."

"You love me, shut up." mark elbowed him in the side. 

"I absolutely despise you" Jack laughed.


	7. Shadow

The sounds of students talking and lockers swinging open surrounded Jack, echoing over the hallway, following them as they cut through the sea of students.

It was so loud in the school, but not as loud as it had been in the city, or maybe it wasn't, not really. 

It's just, the city had been loud, but the city had been suffocating, it was disorienting and Jack was lost.

Here all Jack had to do was look ahead to see Mark only a few steps ahead of him, expertly weaving through the crowded hallway, he was absently talking about one thing or another, barely paying attention to where he was going, but still managing to dodge the students moving past him. 

All the others moving through the sea of people seemed to barely give attention to being accidentally bumped or pushed, they seemed used to it, maybe walking through these same hallways every day did it to them. 

A passing student pushed passed Jack, knocking into his shoulder as they shuffled past before Jack could even see their face. With a muttered noise that could only be described phonetically as “ope” or maybe it was spelled “oap” either way, Jack had noticed a lot of people said that here in Opal. 

Maybe it's not even common to say and Jack just keeps running into too many people. 

Jack quickly noticed that while he was thinking he must have slowed down because Mark had lapsed way more than a few steps ahead. 

“Mark?” Jack said, trying to get his friends attention.

“Come on!” Mark laughed, motioning Jack to hurry up, only stopping for a second before moving back with the mass of students. 

Jack quickly caught up to Mark, so that they were walking side by side down the hallway, 

Mark looked up at him “We really do need to shut up and get to class before the bell rings,” Mark said, motioning Jack to follow as he sped up down the hallway, not waiting for Jack to catch up. 

But i haven't even said anything, Jack thought watching as Mark continued to talk to Jack even though he was no longer even looking his direction, instead of looking ahead down the hallway. 

Mark hummed as Jack approached to walk alongside him again. “But like, i wouldn't really worry about being late though, Mr.Briar, my history teacher, he doesn't really care,” Mark stopped talking for a second, distracted by a group of kids settled on the ground by the water fountain, waving to them, Mark continued, “I've probably been late like eight times this year and were not even done with the first quarter yet,” Mark quickly turning his attention back to Jack, smiling.

"The first quarter?" Jack asked, following Mark as he moved to walk along the other side of the hallway.

"Yeah, the school years broken up into four quarters, we have exams..," Mark paused, thinking for a moment, "they're like really hard test, we have them at the end of every quarter." 

"Test?" Jack asked, sidestepping past a few students in order to catch up with Mark. 

"Yeah, like to see what we've learned or whatever, Some of the exams are pretty boring, like history and stuff? It's mainly memorization, but then some, like tameables or patrol studies are like straight up terrifying!" Mark said, throwing his hands through the air to emphasize his point. 

"I also heard that the exams for specials are pretty hard but I've never taken them." Mark continued. 

"Special?"

"It's the class that changes depending on your strengths, sixth period, most powers have a class for learning their specific power but since you're a myth you'd most likely have form changing" Mark explained. 

"But like seriously, we have to hurry, like actually, the bell is about to ring for class we'll be late," Mark said quickly. 

"It's just round this bend, so we'll probably make it there on time, probably" Mark laughed as he sped passed the corner. 

Jack had barely made it two feet into the classrooms when the bell rang for class to start. 

Jack looked around the classroom as Mark lead him to a desk towards the middle of the room. The walls were lined with educational posters, most of which included puns or other jokes involving history, most featuring rock puns. Maybe because the cities were named after rocks? Probably. 

Around the room in an almost grid like pattern they didn't want to stick to, were about twenty-five desk, flimsy metal chairs attached to low tables scrawled over with years of pencil graffiti. Each with their own metal baskets hanging from the chair, clearly meant for the student sitting at the desk to store their books, though they also happened to be in the perfect spot for the person sitting behind them to use it as a footrest. Or, they would use it if they had feet, unlike Jack. 

Jack could see another siren towards the back of the room, who had her tail wrapped around her own basket, which really looked more comfortable than whatever way Jack had been planning on sitting himself.

The windowsills on the wall to his left were decked with hanging pots and baskets, small cacti and other succulents peaked out from inside them. 

The plants really brightened up the dull of the classroom. 

In the center of the room was a low podium, the stand looked like a fairly cheap and flimsy metal, but the small wooden table top seemed to be made of the same carved wood as almost everything else, intricate carvings littering the surface.

It Felt like every wooden object people could get their hands on was made of this stuff, the walls in the dorm, the floor boards, the window sills, the teacher’s podium! He swears he's seen a few students with pencils made out of the stuff.

And the carvings! They were creepy, way too detailed and they always seemed to stare at him! Like that harpy, towards the corner of the rim on the blackboard, she had to be staring right at him.

He could swear they got more detailed the longer he let his eyes linger on the individual carving, he swears he could clearly make out each individual feather on her wings. 

He did not like it. 

Jack realized he was staring at the far-to-detailed-harpy for far too long when he heard the teachers voice. 

"So! I see you have a new kid!" A dark gray centaur looked up at them, "go on, sit down" he said, motioning to the free desk. 

Jack started to make his way over to the desk when the teacher shot up at him "Wait! Not you shadow get up here" the centaur said, motioning Jack to stand by his desk. 

Jack stopped walking after Mark and stood in front of the teacher's desk at the front of the room. 

The centaur smiled as he walked through the isle of desk, stopping in front of Jack, " hello shadow, what's your name?" The centaur said, making a show of lightly pretending to pat him on the head, a few students around the room laughing. 

"Um., my name is Jack," he said, looking down at the desk. 

"Ok, Jack!" The centaur said, turning around towards the rest of the class "everybody say 'hi Jack!'"

"Hi Jack" the class echoed after a couple seconds delay.

"Ok Jacky, go sit down with Mark over there!" The teacher motioned towards the empty desk beside Mark. 

"Ok! Since we have a shadow with us today, clearly we all have to introduce ourselves!" The teacher said, walking over to the wooden podium.

"So we're each going to say your name and one thing about ourselves!" The centaur said, tapping his hand on the podium "I'll start, my name is Mr.Briar and I enjoy reading and gardening." 

"Now that you all get what we're doing and know a little bit more about me, we're going to go around the room and learn a little more about all of you"

"Let's start with Jimmy, go on!" The teacher motioned to a student in the desk a few away from him, a bakunawa, with large dragon-like wings hanging over the back of his desk, who looked around the room for a second before smiling, "my names Jimmy, Jimmy Whetzel and I'm from New York! I grew up in New York but moved here when I was almost 15!" 

"Ok! Well, go down the line here! Mark you're next!"

"Uh.. my names Mark and I'm the captain's son, so that's pretty cool I guess" 

"Everyone knows you're Ryan's son Mark, and that's not about you, thats about your dad, tell us something we don't know" the teacher motioned him on.

"Well um, hi my name is Mark, I'm seventeen, and I still can't complete multiplication tables past 7" Mark laughed, gaining a couple laughs from students around them. 

"I'm glad I'm not your math teacher, but I guess that's better." the teacher laughed, moving on.

"Ok new kid! Your turn," the teacher said.

"my name is Jack, and there isn't much cool about me,"

"Come on you have to have something!"

Jack shrugs 

"Come on, collect anything? That's a good fact" the teacher egged on.

"I used to collect rocks?"

"Used to?" The student behind him asked. 

"Yah, I left them in the forest." 

"Howd you leave them in a forest? Why did you even take a rock collection in a forest?"

"I lived there?" 

"What?"

Jack shrugged again. 

"Ok mat your turn!" The teacher said, trying to keep the class rolling.

Jack turned to the student who was up next, it was a fawn, a deer fawn, light brown hair and, wait her knew that kid. It was mat, from the city, he talked to him while trying to find Robin, before he ran into Pam.

Standing straighter in his chair, Jack smiled at the fawn, who smiled back with a smile that said "why are you smiling at me?" waving for a second before turning back to Mr.Briar "I'm mat, and I'm going to be on myths to mellows next month! Which means I'll get to go to New York!" 

"That's awesome Mat, myths to mellows! That's great, you'll get to be part of history!"

"I know!" 

"On to you Stephanie!" Mr.Briar moved on, talking to the ipotane. 

"Hi! I'm Steph and I'm gonna be Mat's plus one to New York! I can't wait"

"Well I hope you two have fun, but don't get lost, New York is even bigger than emerald, so way larger than here in Opal.” 

Jack fell into listening to the passing conversation as Mr,briar filtered through the students in the room, a couple stand out facts being "I collect decorative plates" and "I once enchanted a dudes pencil to roll off his desk whenever he tried to put it back" the latter being followed by the kid behind him smacking him on the back of the head with his folder.

"Anyways! Back to the history!" The teacher said after he had filtered through all the students,  
"Alright class, right where we left off on the PowerPoint."

Jack looked over at Mark, who was jabbing him in the side to get his attention again, "he always has PowerPoints, at this point I'm pretty sure he puts more effort into making them than actually teaching them." 

"I hear y'all talking over there. Listen up" Mr. Briar said, not looking up from the projector. 

"Sorry," a student towards the corner of the room said, causing the teacher to finally look up from his PowerPoint.

"Wait no, I was talking about Mark," The teacher sighed "I saw your pencil falling off your desk,” the teacher rubbed his temple as he waved his pencil vaguely at the students “Vikk, this is the fifth time you've done this, stop or I'll have to take away your wand, you'll get it back in special." 

"Sorry Mr.Briar." the kid he was talking to said quickly 

Mark leaned over towards Jack "that kids Vikk barns, he's an enchanter, he keeps enchanting things to mess with his friends, it's hilarious, last week he tried to do the pencil thing to his friend Lachlan, the kid just didn't even try to pick it up.”

“Anyways,” the teacher said loudly, regaining the student's attention. “As those of you who've been paying attention know, recently we've been learning about the stones, specifically for today, my favorite, Carnelian Stone.”

“Now, there's not much recorded about Carnelian, even with being so long ago, it's significantly less than what we know of the others in the stone family. 

“Most of what we know of Carnelian is surrounding his role of leader among the others in the stone family, in fact, we don't even have a solid answer as to what Carnelians power was.”

“In fact, there was no record of him even having a power, but ultimately the basis of our knowledge surrounding him is that he was the oldest of the stones and took care of the others.”

Jack raised his hand,

"What are stones?"

The room fell to a pseudo confused silence for a moment, everyone's eyes were on him and Jack was blushing again for a moment before the teacher looked at him in confusion. 

"wait? What? O-oh. Ok, the stones were the founders of the sanctuaries and the first documented powers." the teacher explained, looking a bit confused by having to go this far back to the basics.

Jack nodded slowly. 

"I'll tell you about it later," Mark said quickly. 

"Sounds fun" Jack laughed. 

The teacher droned on about how carnelian stone was the founder of the first sanctuary, well his whole family was, he was the oldest and took care of the other kids, because they were all orphans or something, surprisingly enough Jack couldn't help but be at least slightly interested in what the teacher was saying. 

"Hey! H-hey! Jack!" Mat, the deer-satyr a couple seats from him stage whispered, throwing an eraser at him, the pencil topper hitting Jack in the forehead before clattering onto the face of his desk. 

Jack looked up at him, knitting his eyebrows and picking up the eraser. 

"Dude! Hi!" Mat said, smiling up at him. 

"Hi?" Jack said, unable to help but return the smile. 

"Did you ever find your centaur friend?"

"Course, I found him a couple hours after I talked to you" Jack responded, nodding his head absentmindedly. 

"That's good!" Mat said before the teacher hushed him. 

Jack jumped in his seat when the bell rang, a couple students next to him laughing, Mark's laugh echoed next to him. 

"It happens to the best of us." Mark said, motioning Jack out of his seat "we gotta get to next class, we have science." 

"Science?" 

"Yeah it's right down this hall, a couple more rooms down.” Mark started to move towards the door to the hallway. 

"The science teacher is literally the worst!" Mark said sourly, throwing his hands up in the air.

"What why?" Jack looked at Mark, surprised at the sudden outburst. 

"She keeps losing kids assignments! She's literally just lost eight kids lab reports and claimed they never turned them in! Every week! It's terrible!" Mark went on, pushing through a group of students that were talking. 

“Sorry” Jack muttered as he followed after Mark. 

"Is she just that forgetful?" Jack spoke up, catching up to Marks side. 

"That's the thing! We don't know!" Mark would have sounded absolutely baffled if he wasn't stopping every other word to catch his breath from laughing. 

Mark was still cracking up next to him as the two walked through the ocean of students.

"Unless she's just got this sad and angry life and is taking it out on us!" Mark said, talking with his hands, speeding up down the hallway. 

"She's probably just forgetful," Jack said, sidestepping past a few students to catch up with Mark. 

"You'll see fish boy! You'll see!" Mark said, turning around to say it directly to Jack, pointing at him exaggeratedly 

"She can't be that bad" Jack laughed as Mark pushed him into the classroom, motioning him to sit down at the desk next to him.

"Her names Ms.Ennuye," Mark said quietly, watching the classroom door swung open and a short stocky woman with a natty brunette bun that hung lopsided off her head, walk through to the desk in the center of the classroom. 

Jack looked up to see a light of disgust shining in Mark’s eyes, he must actually not like this teacher. 

"At least Signe’s and Amy are in this class if I didn't have them I'd probably go insane here."

"Signe’s here?" Jack said.

"Yah? But it doesn't look like she’s in here yet, those two are almost always late to this class, but the teacher doesn't notice, she doesn't notice much or just doesn't care."

"They just don't go to class?" Jack asked, why would someone want to just no do it? Class looks like so much fun?

"Yah," Mark laughed "its called skipping class, people do it in movies but I could never be brave enough to" 

"Wouldn't the teacher get mad?"

"That's what I'm afraid of!"

"Listen up class" a scratchy voice rang from the front of the class.

"Today we're doing this weeks lab on Monday instead of Friday like we normally do."

The class seemed to lighten up at the mention of doing a lab, kids starting to get together there things to leave the classroom.

"Did I say we're leaving the classroom, no, today is an in-class lab."

A couple students sighed and one kid put his head back on his desk, having been temporarily roused from sleep by the commotion of switching to the lab room.

"That means we're doing a worksheet," Mark said to Jack, fiddling with the pencil he had on his desk.

"We're going to start with reading, open your books to page 30, powers and genetics." The teacher's voice drained on above them.

"Here you can look off mine Jack," Mark said, scooting his desk closer so Jack could look off his book.

“You're each going to read a paragraph of the selection, we're starting with James.” The teacher motioned to a Draco in the desk closest to her. 

“God, she has us read like this every day, it's actually the worst, not only does she force us all to talk in front of the class, which by the way, is worse than death itself, but she also has us read one paragraph, one single paragraph? Like we might as well not read at all!” 

“I swear, everyone is so scared of stumbling over the words as embarrassing themselves, no one even absorbs one fact from the reading!” Mark complained.

The teacher hushed him harshly, Mark looked back up at Jack and rolled his eyes, adequately getting across the sentiment of “god, why do I have to deal with this” 

James had long finished his pint size reading and the selection had moved further a few more desk, the kid right to the left of Jack was currently reading, which meant Jack was next.

It was fine, Jack was always pretty good at reading as a kid.

He hadn't practiced in a while though. 

The student beside him had stopped talking and was looking over at him expectantly.

Jack looked down at the book, wait where were they in the book? Then looked back up at Mark, who finally noticed Jack wasn't reading and helpfully placed his pencil at the spot where his reading started.

Jack looked down at what he was supposed to read, ok these were strange words, ok maybe he didn't know how to read very well, but can you really blame the kid that lived alone in a pond somewhere in the middle of the forest since he was 8 for not being able to read. 

Jack looked up at Mark for a moment, raising his eyebrows, trying to get across the “I have no idea what I'm doing in this situation” look.

When Mark didn't get the picture Jack whispered to him, "I don't know how to read very well" Jack, laughed awkwardly.

At this Mark looked down at him, fully realizing the extent of his friend's lack of interaction with other people.

Mark raised his hand, the teacher calling on him in return.

"Can we skip my shadow, Jack"

"Fine,” the teacher sighed, turning back to whatever she was messing with on her desk, “your turn Mark" the teacher responded. 

"Why?" One of the other students asked. 

"That's official Fischbach business," Mark said, mocking an official tone, being granted the laughs of a couple students around them, before continuing his reading.

About halfway through his paragraph, he was interrupted by a knock on the door, the teacher coughed before walking over and opening It. 

Amy and Signe walked into the classroom, exactly five minutes late, so right on time really. They had with them some vague excuse about their previous teacher keeping them over after the bell. 

Opening the door, Ms.Ennuye stared down at them before sighing, "go to your seats." She said, before closing the door after them.

Amy sat next to a girl towards the front of the room, talking to her excitedly.

Signe walked over to them and sat down in front of Mark, smiling back at them.

"Oh hey, Mark!" she said, looking over to Jack and smiling "and Jack! Hey!"

"Hey!" Jack greeted back. 

"Time to start the lab, hey can you pass out the sheet?" The teacher said, handing off a stack of papers to some kid in the front row, who looked like they'd rather not but are going to pass them out anyway.

The sheet was simple, some words at the top, thankfully most of them were simpler, saying something about powers and how... people got them, or something.

The bottom half of the page was blank except for a thin lined square with a cross through it, and lines on the sides creating, even more, boxes, so that it was four bigger boxes with four thinner longer squares, rectangles… right, on the sides. 

The page called it a pun-net square, if he was reading it right, probably not. 

Jack could see Mark looking over to him from his other side, with a strange look in his eyes, probably amusement at watching him struggle with reading the page.

Mark waved his hand above him to get his attention "hey Jack"

Jack rubbed his head for a second, waving off his friend.

"Don't worry about it dude, I'll read it for you right now, maybe we can like to practice it later or something, I'll like tutor you"

Jack laughed, "alright then, sounds good." 

The class went on as what Jack assumed was usual, the lab ended up being some activity about the genetics of powers, the teacher said it was "an introduction into genetics and the science behind the surfacing of powers" whatever half those words mean.

"Here Jack, you can just work on mine with me." Mark smiled up at him. 

"Oh., ok."

"Not that you couldn't work on one on your own but... " Mark looked around for a second "it's just-"

Jack laughed for a second "no it's ok Mark, I literally don't know what half of the words she just said mean, so you'll have to explain them.

"Oh ok, ok so the basis of the assignment is that we have to put 'our parent's powers'-" Mark explained, quickly underlying the title of the worksheet with his pencil. 

"Wait what if they don't have powers!" Jack said, suddenly very aware of the fact that he doesn't have parents, let alone parents that have powers.

"No, we can just make them up!" Mark laughed

"Oh? Then are you going to?"

"What why?"

"Well, you don't have powers so I assumed your parents didn't either? That's how this stuff works right?" Jack was probably getting this whole thing wrong, wasn't he, now he was just embarrassing himself again. 

"Oh.. um, my parents actually both have animal themed powers, my dad has animal control so he can like tell them what to do and stuff."

"Oh, that's cool!"

"Yah," Mark laughed "I guess I'm just a fluke."

“Ok, so what should my Mom’s powers be, I've got, like, awesome cooking skills, for my dad.” Signe laughed, joining the conversation.

“she’s just really good at raising shrubbery” Mark answered, laughing again. 

“She’s just, really good with plants, that's his power,” Jack added. 

“she’s like, hey plant can you do me a favor and uh, photosynthesize? Thanks!” Signe laughed. 

“Just, hey plant, can you please just eat the sun for me?” Mark continued, running with the joke.

The bell abruptly cut off their animated conversation, exchanging goodbyes with Signe, the two started to get up to go to their next class.

The bell pulled them out of their animated conversation, exchanging their goodbyes with Signe, Jack looked up to Mark, who was gathering his books on his desk.

"Ok! So the next class is like the best one!" Mark jumped out of his seat, looking up at Jack with happy eyes.

"What is it?" Jack asked, uncurling his tail from the desk leg as he got up to follow Mark.

"Tameables!" Mark said quickly, starting to walk towards the door.

"What?"

"You know! Little magic animal things? Like phoenix and stuff!" Mark explained, 

"Oh!"

"It's our best class!" Mark said, basically running down the hall. 

"It's out in the back yard near the stables, so we really have to not get distracted." Mark mumbled as he weaved through a group of taller students. 

"Stables?"

"We call it that, but it's not really like those horse stables or anything, I guess we just wanted to sound fancy, it's more of the little house where all our schools tameable ambassadors, and sometimes students pets live,” Mark laughed, “the tameables ambassadors, they're like highly tamed tameables we send out to mellow cities to like educate them on tameables and stuff, and for like teaching us too" 

"Oh cool"

"Yah, they're the cutest, my dad helps with the taming and stuff Because of his power, apparently him and my mom like worked there when they Graduated"

"so like Jackalopes and stuff?" Jack asked. 

"What about them?"

"That's the kind of stuff they tame" 

"What no?" Mark laughed "we, the students, actually tame Jackalopes for like the exam and stuff, the actual tamers tame like dragons and chimeras and stuff!"

"Wait wouldn't they like attack them?"

"No? Because they tamed them"

"That's terrifying"

"No they're super cute!" Mark jumped as they ran through the door out of the school. 

"If you say so"

"You'll see! We're getting an ambassador today!" Mark said excitedly as they walked out the wooden door to the school, now out in the yard Jack almost stopped to stare at the view of the mountain stretching out in front of them, Mark, clearly having seen the same view so many times it had lost its luster, just kept walking towards the benches, motioning Jack to sit down next to him. 

"Today we're learning about some more in depth stuff on creatures that are on the dangerous creatures list!" Mark said, tapping the seat of the bench with his hand as he talked. 

"I'm so excited" Mark smiled wildly. 

"We had some tameables in our woods I think" Jack commented absentmindedly. 

Mark looked somewhere behind Jack and patted the seat next to him, following his gaze, Jack saw Ethan, Tyler, and Robin walking over to the benches. 

Mark smiled up at the two as they walked closer, motioning vaguely to the bench they were sitting on.

Jack looked up to see a woman running towards the podium a little ways ahead of them, presumably the teacher.

She had puffy ginger hair and a large white Sunhat, and she was young barely looked older than late twenties, she was tall and lanky and walked in a way that suggested she wasn't quite used to walking around in her own body.

As she made it to her podium she smiled at her class, the white sunhat almost falling off her head as a gust of wind blew through the yard.

"Hello! Today we aren't going to be sitting here! We're going to the stables!" The teacher said excitedly, scrambling to catch her hat.

"Wait are those shadows!" She said excitedly, looking Jack in the eyes, then peering over to do the same to Robin. 

Suddenly under the gaze of too many eyes, Jack tried to sink further into the wooden bench. 

"Hello," Jack laughed awkwardly.

"Wow! New friends! Ok, what's your name!" She said, tapping her pencil on the podium as she talked. "Wait! We don't have time! We have to get to the stables! You can introduce yourselves when we get there!" She turned and motioned the kids to follow, breaking into a light jog across the yard.

"By the way! Shadows! My name is Miss Beer! " the teacher screamed from about ten feet ahead of them, Jack swam next to Mark, who was jogging along with the rest of the students on their way to the stables." 

"What are we seeing today?" Ethan asked, jogging up to Marks other side, looking surprisingly used to running, or swimming faster than usual in case, either way, Jack wasn't used to it at all.

His sides were starting to cramp and he definitely didn't want to complain, especially with not being able to read earlier and accidentally embarrassing himself in history, he didn't want to make any more of a scene of himself.

Jack was brought out of his thoughts by Ethan jumping a head a little bit, Mark must have answered, whatever it was Ethan must be excited.

Not gonna ask Mark to repeat himself, that's rude, gonna have to deal with the surprise, oh well. 

After having bounded ahead a few strides from the others, Ethan was trying to slow down to walk in line with the others "I'm like so excited! My absolute favorite tameable!" Ethan laughs, he's tripping on a few too many clumps of grass. 

Tripping on things sounds annoying, Jacks glad, being legless, he doesn't have to worry about that.

The clump of children slowed down as they neared a tall wooden building towards the back of the yard, it had the air of being a futuristic building painted over with an old timey and comfy aesthetic.

It was cute, made to look like a barn, but it was way too big to be any normal barn, reaching at least three stories. 

"So this is the stables," Mark said, after jabbing Jack in the side to get his attention again as the students clambered into the building.

The entrance to the building seemed to lead to a kind of lobby, comfy looking chairs were scattered around and there was a pile of children's toys and books in one of the corners, and there were a few potted plants. At the end of the room were two corridors, one labeled by a sign saying "education" and the other "personal" the whole place looked pretty cozy.

The teacher hurried them down the education hallway, only stopping for a second to nod at a worker sitting at a desk in between the two archways.

The teacher walked the clump of kids who had long lost their qualification as a line across the corridor, walking through a pair of sliding doors. The doors opened before they even walked up to it, none of the others commented on it so Jack assumed they were enchanted, how did they even know to open? Magic, probably. 

Past the moving doors the room opened out, for a second Jack thought they had exited outside, it seemed like they had walked into a dense forest, Jack looked up to see the tree tops surrounding him, he could even see a blue and gold phoenix sitting on a tree a ways away from them. Looking past the trees he noticed that the students had, In Fact, entered a large dome, it was made of glass and seemed to keep the inside-outside away from the outside-outside that he could see from the windows. 

The walls of the dome were lined with classrooms, each named after a plant or animal, and a sign with a picture sitting towards the side of each door. 

"Why did they bring the outside inside?" Jack asked, poking Tyler, who happened to be standing near him at the time.

"What? Oh, you mean the discovery forest don't you? It's for mellows and youngins who visit to like 'explore' the forest and all the magic things in it"

"Oh, can we explore it," Jack said scrunching his eyes at the signs by all the trees and plants, he wanted to find out what everything he grew up with was like actually called, and he couldn't read it on his own.

Tyler smiled, "maybe we can come here together after school sometime."

"Cool!" Jack smiled, watching as they passed a plant blooming with a large blue and purple flower, it looked familiar, maybe he'd seen it once or twice in the forest.

"So we're in fire fern today, and we may or may not have a tameable friend!" The teacher said, a couple feet ahead of the clump of students. 

"We aren't in first grade anymore miss beer" a student somewhere on the other side of the clump said.

"That's what teachers have called tameable ambassadors since we were in like first grade seeing gemstone beetles"

"I used to love those! When I was younger one sat on the rock by my pond for like a week, I named him Steve or something, I loved that rocky man." Jack laughed. 

"They are cute aren't they?" Mark agreed as they walked into the classroom.

"Circle time! Criss cross, but you won't need to connect knees, I'm sorry to say this tameable will just step over you-", she stopped herself, gently nudging some kids' legs in with her foot "do we need to go over the animal friend time rules again?"

"Shadow?" One of the kids on the other side of the circle spoke up.

"Oh! Shadow, ok, I guess we will then, so when we have a tameable ambassador we do what should make the animal most comfortable, which means we sit in a circle with our legs, or whatever else, close to our bodies so we don't trip me or the animal and stay quiet."

Jack nodded in response.

"Ok-" the teacher clapped "good! Ok, you all stay here and I'll go to the other room to get out ambassador!" Miss Beer said as she rushed out the door that connected their classroom to the next one over. 

Jack ended up sitting with his tail curled around himself, with Mark to his left and Ethan on his right.

The circle ended up more oblong than it probably should have, but that's a given considering the situation. 

The situation is the fact that they're all first years.

The loud whispering from the circle died down abruptly as the door to their room opened slowly, The teacher walking through it, pulling a large cooler after her, bringing her finger to her lips to shush the group.

"So the friend I had planned is currently visiting some nice mellows from far away so I brought a different friend for now!" miss beer said, lugging the large red cooler into the room, it had a piece of tape on it that read Rufus which was presumably a name-  
1998 so if that's the year they were born they're fairly old for a whatever-was-in-the-cooler. 

"Ok so what's in the cooler, I hear you thinking, well, Because it's taxi is a cooler, what does that mean is in it?" She said, pulling the cooler into the middle of the circle, motioning for the students to make a path for her, a couple already raising their hands to answer. Picking a student somewhere over the side of the circle, they said "reptiles" only for her to respond with "why" a few more scattered hands raising around the circle.

She called on Ethan, who had had his hand raised excitedly since she started talking, "reptiles and other cold blooded animals need to be kept in coolers to regulate their temperatures!" He said, Jack was surprised Ethan could use so many big words in one sentence.

"And what's another word for cold blooded?" The teacher promoted, some of the hands from before fell down but a few stayed raised.

Beside him Mark stood a little taller and smiled to himself, his hand shooting up. 

The teacher called on Mark who said "endothermic" 

the teacher smiled "that's right!"

The others knew so many fancy words and knew stuff from living in this city all there lives, Jack could actually get lost inside their dorm if he didn't have someone helping him and couldn't even read, how he was going to pass any classes if he joined, he had no idea. Maybe he just shouldn't- 

Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Mark elbowing him, swears, he's gonna have a huge bruise tomorrow from this stuff, Mark smiled up at him "exothermic means warm blooded, which is being able to regulate your body temperature, humans are warm blooded so that's us! But turtles and snakes and chimeras and stuff, they're cold blooded and can't regulate their body temperature!" Mark explained excitedly, clearly really excited to share this knowledge with someone who didn't know it. 

Endothermic means makes its own heat and exothermic means dependent on outside heat, Jack thought it over in his head, Maybe learning all this stuff would be easier than he thought, of course, he did have good tutors. 

Jack smiled as he locked eyes with Robin from across the circle, Robin looked as confused as Jack felt. 

“Also! Jack, hyperthermic means they can produce an excess amount of heat, like dragons and hellhounds, it's why they can breathe fire, and then auferathermic means the opposite, so they can make things cold.” Mark explained, Jack didn't catch most of what he was saying but listened nonetheless

The teacher had been ruffling through the closet and had pulled out a tarp, after spreading it out inside the circle she turned to the cooler. 

"So this is Rufus " the teacher said, flicking open the lid to the hole punched cooler and reaching in, Jack couldn't see into the cooler from where he was sitting. 

She stood up and was holding a turtle, its shell had a hole in the center, from which a steady stream of smoke escaped. 

"These babes are one of the more common ones to be sold to rich mellows illegally," Mark said from beside him. 

"Why?"

"They use them to light their cigarettes," Mark said matter of factly. 

"Rufus is one of our lighter tortoises, we have three total in our care here at the stables, of course here in the sanctuaries they're a relatively common pet. But be warned, these little beast need lots of time and lots of care to keep that fire going."

"Of course, Rufus is fully tamed, though being only a level 1 undangerous, he's just too stupid to do any harm if he wanted," the teacher said, putting the turtle down in the center of the mat. 

"He's a cutie" Mark had turned to look at Jack, smiling. 

"Yes."

"Rufus is a lighter tortoise, he's in fact" the teacher stopped for a second, lightly kicking another kid's legs to silently tell them to sit criss cross again, "fun fact, believe it or not, they are actually heavier than most tortoises, and by that I mean he's like thirty pounds too heavy for being about the size of a box turtle."

"The weight actually comes from His shell, that's made out of assorted metals." 

"He's actually called a lighter tortoise because he has an internal flame inside this hole on his shell that burns at around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, he's a very hot boy.” the teacher had started walking around the outside of the circle. 

"He can actually spit fire out of his hatch if need be as a defense mechanism" 

"Are we gonna see it do that?" Jack asked, turning back to Mark. 

"No! That means he's highly uncomfortable to feel the need to defend himself" Mark said quickly. 

"Can you train him to do it?" Jack asked, eyes straying back to the turtle. 

"You would need a highly powerful tamer but sure, I guess” 

The turtle was starting to burn a black spot on the tarp where he was sitting when the teacher put back on her gloves and put Rufus back into his cooler.

"Are we gonna see the other tameable today?" a student towards the other side of the circle asked. 

"Sorry to tell you but we won't be seeing Betsy until Wednesday, probably." the teacher started to roll up the mat.

A couple of students around the circle frowned at this, apparently, Betsy was someone most of the class wanted to meet. 

The teacher asked something to the student nearest to her, apparently astonished by their answer, she stood up and motioned to the students to stand up "ok so apparently we're almost out of time for today! Go out to your free period before the bell rings! Don't be late to whatever else you have! Goodbye!" 

"What's free period?" Jack asked, standing up. 

"Umm, we just kinda hang out?" Mark said, getting up from the circle and walking towards the door. 

"Jesus, you're making it seem like they just set us loose, like animals," Tyler said as he met them by the door. 

"Well no, we're supposed to like meet teachers to ask questions if we're failing a class or whatever." Mark said, leading the way through the huge, apparently, man made "discovery forest" as they left the classroom. 

"For a bit they were trying to make us call it flex time, to like promote the use of our flexible schedule, or something, but not even the teachers call it that," Mark said 

" 'Cept most people just sit in the courtyard or the cafeteria and talk" Ethan laughed, after catching up to the others and joining the conversation 

"We usually all hang out in the courtyard," Mark said. 

"The others too, usually aquamarine hangs out in the cafeteria though," Ethan said. 

"It depends on the day, to be honest," Mark said, looking back up at Jack and shrugging. 

"So where are we going today anyways," Tyler asked. 

"Maybe Ross and the others will be at the courtyard" Mark commented. 

"Ross?" Jack asked.

"A shapeshifter, he's part of the citrine patrol" Mark explained. 

"A shapeshifter?" 

"It's a type of myth, he can change his form and stuff, usually he likes to turn into animals." Mark laughed.

"Oh cool," Jack said, there sure was a ton of different types of myths. 

"He's nice, his whole patrol is super nice, there's another siren, his name's Brian, you should meet him." Ethan said. 

"Oh cool!" Jack was always happy to meet another siren, who knew sirens could be so many colors.

"He's like an ocean siren though, not like a cave siren like you or Pam" Ethan said. 

"Oh cool?" He'd never heard of an ocean siren before, 

"So where do you wanna go?" Tyler asked.

"You two wanna choose?" Tyler looked back towards Jack and Robin. 

"The cafeteria?" 

"Sure, it's in the past the courtyard and to the left, past the lobby of the school”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey just another reminder I made a blog on Tumblr for this story, it's @mythtube and I post art sometimes!


	8. Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to get this out! Im in the process of rewriting the older chapters!

Looking over his shoulder towards the mountains, Mark let his eyes follow the sinking ridge of peaks that fell down towards the city, Edges of the mountains turning to hills, hills turning to cliffs and cliffs rising to the edges of the city. You could really see everything from the campus, from up in the mountains you can look down at the tops of the city’s loft of skyscrapers. Looking back over it now, Mark could actually see how Jack had been so hung up on it, it made sense. It really was pretty, its just Mark had seen the same sight, granted it was a beautiful sight, but still a sight he had seen about every day since he was barely two. So it makes sense he'd be completely numb to the city’s scenic qualities or whatever by now. He probably should take everyone and their teacher’s vague advice and ‘appreciate the little things’ like look over the mountains and think wow this is just as beautiful as the day i first saw it. But why would he?

He can't even remember when he first saw it, and about right now he was feeling less in awe of nature's beauty, and more cold. Mainly cold. The mountains always grew so much colder in autumn than most places. It easily got into the negatives before christmas here, weeks before it was even remotely acceptable to play christmas music. It would be a week until halloween and being hit in the side of the face with a snowball any moment your outdoors was a real threat. It was already reaching the late fall. The trees that littered campus had long started turning assorted shades of orange, leaving the evergreens to stand glaring from the forest with their dark greens and oddly shaped leaves that refused to fall in the winter. 

Winter really was coming any day now, Mark could feel it in the crisp autumn air that was already growing more bitter than crisp. He should get Robin a blanket, no doubt he'd be absolutely freezing without one. Jack would probably need some more stuff too, right now him and Robin were just borrowing the rest of the patrol’s old clothes. God knows Ethan is always cold. They could all use some winter shopping. At some point they should go do that. A nice patrol shopping trip.

Jack said some sense of a goodbye as he moved to swim alongside Robin a few feet away. They had started a conversation on one thing or another, nothing Mark really cared to join. 

They were only a few yards from the schoolway anyways and he didn't need to interrupt their conversation just to end it a few seconds later. 

Ethan and Tyler were actually a few feet ahead of him, clearly joking about something, he could hear the jovial twang to their voices from where he was. A clear indicator that they were either approaching areas of extreme comedy or about to dig themselves into a comedic ditch not even a true comedic genius could climb out of. Ok, now that was a conversation he’d love to interrupt. Mark kicked up some loose grass as he ran towards Ethan and Tyler, barreling between them, and effectively into their conversation. 

“hey!” he greeted them, slowing down to walk by Ethan's other side. 

“Ello” Ethan turned to look towards him, smiling. 

“Hey dude, hows your day been?” Tyler asked, in the usual tone that conveyed he really didn't care to know how his day had been, just that he'd wanted a conversation starter. Mark heard that a lot, his friend was far too dependant on basic conversation starters. 

“I don't know man it's only like third period.” Mark laughed, mocking his choice of words. 

“Well then how's it been So far” Ethan corrected, exaggeratedly moving his hand in emphasis. 

“It's been great, best day of my life, ever.” Mark said, voice laced with faux-seriousness.

“Speaking of such a wonderful day, how's Jack been dealing with it, he actually looked like he was about to pass out in class earlier?” Tyler laughed. 

“Nah, he's doing great, oh you should have seen it!” Mark smiled “he was actually answering questions!” Mark laughed as he looked over to the others. “granted he got them wrong,” Mark laughed again “but he's trying!”

“Oh that's good! Cant wait till gym, all of us are in the same period.” Tyler said.

“Then its English, but after that we'll be separated again for special, then patrol studies so, of course we'll be together for that.” Ethan said, moving ahead to open the door for the others.

Mark nodded his head in a slight show of acknowledgement before walking a few feet into the hall, “so we going to the cafeteria or-”

The metallic sound of the intercom rang above them, break time announcements, also known as the most useless announcements of the day. His dad, Captain, went over the intercom to talk about what clubs are meeting and whose needed at the office and all sorts of other stuff no one really listens to unless they hear their name called. Even so, the teachers are adamant about no one talking during them. 

His dad's voice listed over the intercom, “Welcome back to your favorite part of the day,” his dad’s catchphrase, it wasn't anyone's favorite part of the day. Except maybe his dad’s, honestly. “There's a mandatory art club meeting during break in room 203 for any students looking to join art club this semester…”

At that point Mark had already long stopped paying attention to the announcements, instead opting to watch the others around him for a bit.

People watching was one of his pastimes of sorts. It's a wonder really, the kinds of things people do when they think no one's watching. Nothing bad usually, just people smiling to themselves or dropping their pencil on the ground an uncomfortable amount of times while just trying to pick it up. Small mistakes that at the moment feel like career ending disasters, but in the end mean less than nothing. 

The kind of things people hope no one saw and are kind of embarrassed about. It's good fun. Not that he'd bring it up that he'd seen it, he just likes to know he might be the only one that did. 

“a final reminder that the courtyard is closed for break today!” the announcements shut off with a small click. 

“wel l i guess it's a good thing we decided on the cafeteria then. Anyways, I still haven't finished my history project, the art one” Mark said, looking over to the others, who had started walking towards the cafeteria already.

“You didn't finish that yet?” Ethan called back to him.

“Didn't he assign it like two weeks ago,” Tyler asked. 

“I just need to do the finishing touches” Mark tried to clarify before being interrupted. 

“Like drawing it?” Ethan mocked. 

“I never got around to it ok,” Mark quickly ran his hand through his hair “anyways! it usually takes us forever to find a teacher cool enough to let us hang out in their room anyways, so we're basically stuck with the cafeteria.” 

“Mr.Briar would probably let us, if you want to?” Tyler asked. 

Mark shakes his head “Yah but that's where the seniors usually hang out” the art kids usually stay there to talk to Mr.Briar. 

“Good point” Tyler said. 

“Anyways, the cafeteria it is i guess?” Ethan asked. 

“Its right past the gym this way.” Mark called over to Robin and Jack. 

They looked content to just follow anyways, but how else is he supposed to get them to learn the layout of the school?

Mark ran quickly ahead, hopefully their usual table hadn't been taken, sometimes the upperclassmen would decide to take every single table. 

Mark immediately found the usual table, the very back corner of the cafeteria, by the exit to the outdoor tables. It looked like Mat and Steph were already they're, papers sprawled over the table, probably to study some test that's not for eight weeks, knowing them.

“Hey!” Mark greets as he sits down by them, mat looks up at him “wanna study with us? The vocab quiz for english is today”

“I was just going to study online” Mark said, clumsily dropping his books onto the table.

“Weak” mat laughed “study like a real man, join us”

“Ok rude, and also i don't have time, i have to finish my history project” Mark said. 

“The one on the stones?” mat asked, fiddling with his notecards, not looking at him. 

“On carnelian.” Steph said. 

“Yah, the ‘history theory’” Mark mocked Mr.Briar in an overly deep voice. 

“That is still the stupidest name for a project” Ethan joined the conversation, sitting down across from him, next to steph. 

“I didn't think it was that bad!” Mat said. 

“I still think it's a stupid premise for a project, i mean why does he even have to have a power, I mean no one but the stones had powers in the first place right?” Mark complained, closing his history folder and sliding his paper onto the table.

“Well no, there's some documented stuff of people developing powers and being killed for being ‘witches’” mat looked up at him “That's like a big thing, were literally learning about it right now.” 

“Mat, there is absolutely no reason for you to be so tryhard in like every class, it just isn't practical” Mark laughed, picking up one of his notecards.

It was pliable, thankfully, for the joke he was going to make, this is the only word he knew by heart. 

“Pliable; a word that means to act like Matthew Patrick” Mark said sarcastically, he used it right, probably. 

“Im easy to bend?” mat laughed, grabbing to take back his notecard. 

“Bendy.” Steph repeated, laughing. 

“Wait i thought-” Mark started. Didn't that word mean ‘stubborn’ or something. 

“Mark i think you need to study for english, you have it like next period don't you?” Mat asked, turning back to steph. 

“Nah, i have it fifth.” Mark clarified. 

“Ah” mat commented, turning back to steph with his note cards in hand. 

“Ill study before class starts” Mark said.

“You're gonna fail” Steph laughed at him. 

“I'm smart, i studied a couple nights ago” Mark didn't study last night, not at all. 

“Sure.” Mat laughed

“I did!” he didn't.

“Remember to come visit us when exams start, we can all study together!” Steph said, turning to Ethan and Tyler, on her other side.

“Well bring pizza, but you have to bring your smarts and superior studying methods” Ethan laughed. 

“Will do!” steph laughed.

“I'm just gonna end up playing with skip for three hours while i'm supposed to be studying” Ethan said.

Honestly who wouldn't, how they get anything done with a griffin in dorm, impossible. 

“Well probably have to set him in the bedroom, last year he took a liking to knocking our notes off the table with his wings.” steph laughed. 

“Anyways! I need to finish my work!” Mark shook his head, grabbing a couple sharpies from his pencil bag. 

No but seriously, history was such a bad subject. Marks not the type to say ‘dead people don't matter because they're dead” or whatever the history teachers say kids say. But it is his worst subject, he'd never liked it the most. Mr.Briar was a great teacher, so that makes the class not as bad as it had the potential to be. It was still boring. Boring and hard

The forty minute bell jolted him from his work. ‘Work’ being used loosely, as he didn't really get anything done. Break was about to end. Which meant two minutes before next bell. He'd have to finish his project after school. 

People had started to gather their stuff and leave the cafeteria.

Mark starts to pile his books and shove his papers back into his folder when he looks over to see Ethan throwing his drawstring over his shoulder. 

Gym clothes.

He's such an idiot. He almost always makes the mistake of forgetting to grab his gym clothes during break. 

“Wait Jack!” Mark called, catching up to Jack as they walked out of the cafeteria. 

“What?” Jack stopped walking to look up at him, causing a couple passing students to mumble complaints as they stepped past. 

“I forgot my gym clothes!” Mark pulling Jack behind him as he turned down the hall.

“What?” Jack followed a little farther behind. 

“I was supposed to get them from my locker!” Mark explained, crossing past a few upperclassmen as he cut down the hall. “On the way back from last class.”

“Gym clothes?” Jack tried to clarified his question. 

Oh, that's what he doesn't understand, he’ll have to explain it later. “No time to explain, Jack!” “We have to get them from my locker before gym!” 

“Oh-ok!” Jack ran along behind him. 

“Let's go!” Mark sped down the hallway past the others, barely paying a moment's notice to bumping past other students. 

He really was making sure he took the time to check if Jack was still behind him every few moments as he ran down the hall.

His locker was all the way on the other side of the building. So they'd have to make it there fast to get his change of clothes before the bell change. Hed also have to get changed before class started. Hed done it before. 

Jack didn't need any clothes did he, he's not gonna be doing any of the exercises right? Well if he does need them Mark doesn't have any for him. The teacher probably won't make him anyway. 

If it's a sport day he'd have to explain the rules to Jack, but that's fine, he can do it fairly quickly, Jack usually picks up on stuff super quick. He's pretty sure it's a work out day or something anyways.

Mark slid to a stop by his locker, jokingly moving the kid at the locker under his head out of the way before throwing open his locker door. 

Mark quickly untangled his pink and red drawstring gym-bag from the hook, slamming his locker closed before turning back to Jack “the bell’s gonna ring in like ten seconds, we have to go!” Mark sped back down the hallway, with Jack close behind. 

Mark slides to a stop, veering into the locker room and almost running over Ethan and Tyler. They’re fully changed into their gym clothes and heading towards the gym. 

“You only have a minute to change Mark” Tyler says as he moves past him and out the door.

“Oh no” Mark sings, sarcastically over presenting his own worry. Haphazardly pulling his clothes out of the bag, he placed them on the bench that ran down the center of the locker room. 

“Hey Jack, come with us, dont want you to be late” Tyler calls Jack over to him. 

Jack looks over to Mark for a second, before Mark laughs him off “just go, i'll be out before class starts.”

Mark quickly changes clothes, tripping on the bench that cut between the locker-clad walls of the locker room. There's lots of lockers, thats why its called the locker room. They never even used the lockers, just threw their clothes on the benches. 

Telling himself to stop messing around and head to the gym, Mark pulled his gym shirt over his head. Sam would probably give him a detention for being even a fraction of a second late. Everyone complains the teachers treat him soft because his dad is the captain, but Sam had always treated him with like ten times the standards as everyone else. Not that he didn't like Sam, he was a family friend. He was supposed to call him Mr.Smith at school anyways. 

Mark kicks on his shoes and runs across the hall into the gym. Class hadn't started yet and everyone was still walking slow laps around the basketball court, just the same as any other day. 

Mark waits as the clump of kids that was made up by his patrol and a few friends drifts towards him, joining the group with a small greeting, Tyler hitting him in the side with his shoulder before laughing and telling him he'll remind him to get his clothes tomorrow so this doesn't happen again.

It will probably happen again. 

Mark's been pretty late to gym like every day this week, but why would he want to carry around his bag all day? Its much better to keep it in his locker.

Their conversation had reached a pretty normal valley of complaining about the science teacher, apparently she lost a couple kids lab reports, when sam walked in from the doors that lead to the school's lobby. He stopped a few feet into the gym, calling the shadows to him. 

Robin and Jack fell out of their cluster of people and ambled over to sam by the bleachers.

He must be telling them they can sit by the bleachers while they do warm ups.

Speaking of warm ups, Sam had blown his whistle, signalling them to start. The small clusters of walking students quickly broke up as they got into their lines by lobby side wall of the gym.

They started to run from one side of the gym to the other, doing the same exercises they did every day to warm up. Run, high knees, lunges, it was a pretty basic list. 

Usually Mark took the time to space out and think about random stuff, but today his ankle screamed at him whenever it connected with the floor. He didn't really notice it while walking from class to class, but he must have sprained it while in the forest. Tyler had done his best to heal them, but that doesn't mean the pain wouldn't leave a dull ache. 

Honestly he didn't think Tyler would make any difference after seeing all the burns their group had accumulated after all of that. Tyler was shaking by the time hed healed them all. Using his powers that much and to that extent all in one day must have left him at least on the verge of passing out from exhaustion on the best of days. Even if he would never admit it. Normally, he would have saved face and let him pretend to be unfazed, but when he tried to volunteer to carry Jack after all of that, Mark had to draw the line.

Honestly he'd have to add Healing to his list of powers that are way scarier than they have any right to be.

The holes burned through Jack's fins filling themselves in looked surprisingly like a timelapse of a spider web being built. It was definitely not something hed want to see again, in any case. After a minute of it he had to tear his eyes away, even when Tyler went on to heal his own burns.

He chose just to focus on the soft pink light of his friends power, trying not to imagine his wounds trying to repair themselves. 

Mark shook his head to rid himself of that image, he was about halfway back down the gym, nearer to the lobby door than to the one that exits out into the hallway. 

Half mindedly thinking while he ran his line, Mark was thankful for the fact that most of his classes are in the 1-3 hundred hallways. The classrooms that surrounded the gym in a sort of pseudo square. He knows mat and steph have classes in the seven hundred hallway, which is all the way on the other side of the court yard. 

At some point they had started doing lunges, the last part of the warm up, then they'd do stretches and finally move on to whatever they were doing that day. 

Once the last of them had finished their lines Sam blew his whistle again and they filed into their assigned spots on the gym floor for stretches. It was in alphabetical order, so Mark was somewhat towards the middle. 

Marks ankle still hurt, he'd have to tell his dad about that, he’ll want to know about everything that happened on their little adventure. 

To say the least Mark wasn't looking forward to that conversation, really, they weren't planning on going on an epic adventure and coming home with two strangers and a couple burns. 

Hopefully that would be their last real adventure until graduation. 

Mark could hear his Dad’s voice now “you’re barely a month into your first year and you're already skipping school? Disappointing.”

They were just on a weekend camping trip! They didn't know the poachers would choose that specific weekend to set that specific forest on fire! And they definitely didn't know there were two people living there!

Sam called the students to the center of the room.

They file into a loose circle along the painted lines of the OSU logo, opal sanctuary university, that sat in the middle of the gym floor. 

Mark looks over to Jack, who was sat on his left, and was still mid conversation with Robin, who was on his other side.

Mark taps the floor next to him, getting his friends attention. “We have fight drills today.” 

Jack looked back up at him with the blank stare of “I have no idea what you're talking about” that Mark had by now started to easily recognize. 

“Its mock fights, for training and practicing your powers against people of different strengths” Mark explained, looking along the forest green lines of the circle. 

“You don't get hurt?” Jack asked. 

“The circles enchanted” Mark knocked on the insignia over the floor. It was large, about ten feet across, and had a thick blue line around it, the logo for the school sitting in the middle. “Besides, it's more of a sport than representing an actual fight, i guess.” 

Most of the painted lines on the gym were enchanted with one thing or another, usually just enchanted for pizzass really. Useless, but it sure made vollyball more interesting when little fireworks jumped from the floor whenever someone scored. 

Sam steps over the students on the far end of the circle, moving into the middle, “fight circle” he says to the floor, an eye piercingly bright green light escaping from the paint in sharp pillars. 

The smaller pillars, little cylinders of light shined on the reflective gym floor, in eye bleedingly bright green. They rose to about two feet and were about two inches across. They looked so stupid. 

Imagine having such an obnoxious light. It's basically screaming “hey look at me! Look at me! Im magical!” It's a waste of power for something like the circle, all for show to impress visiting mellows. It was probably enchanted to put on that extra light show every time they turned it on. 

If he was an enchanter he wouldn't be so braggy about it, they probably enchanted it specifically to be as flashy as possible.

When his power shows Mark really hopes he has a softer color, maybe a lighter color green, or a lavender like his dad's. Hopefully he'd have the smokey rise like Ethan's, those were always pretty. Maybe the soft buzzing glow his dad had or something. Anything but this eye bleeding green. At least that's how he hopes it ends up, If his power ever shows.

Mark looked down at his hand, imagining a soft glowing fog pouring out from the center of his palm like Ethan’s. 

“What's it enchanted to do?” Jack asked from beside him, pulling Mark from his thoughts.

“When you're standing in it you can't get hurt, that's the basics of it.” Mark explained, still not fully paying attention. 

“What do we use it for?” Jack continued his game of twenty questions. 

“Fight drills?” Mark almost snapped before stopping himself, he actually doesn't know and actually is curios. 

Jack gave him the “help?” look again. 

“Two people go up and fight until their ‘health’ goes all the way down, that's what those two pillars up front are for.” Mark gestures towards the two pillars of light that stuck out from the others, at least twice the size of the others and colored a deep red and blue respectively. 

“What about the people who aren't powers?”

Mark tried to understand his question for a pause “no, myths practice fighting in it too? Why wouldn't they?”

“What about you?” Jack looked up at him for a moment.

“I'm a power.” Mark said, head jerking back to look at sam who had already started talking. Pretending to listen intently. 

Mark was quiet for a moment before turning back to Jack. 

“Sam, the teacher, he doesn't have any powers, he's actually a mellow even.” Mark said, sitting up on his legs. 

“Really?”

“He's from ohio!” Mark said, Jack responding by looking at him blankly. “it's in america” Mark added after a moment “He moved here like five years ago”

Jack didn't answer for a moment, then hummed and turned back to Sam. 

“He's one of the best fighters in opal.” Mark felt the need to explain the teachers underdog backstory. 

Mark turned back to Sam, who was introducing the matches for today, looks like hed missed a few matches while they were gone, hed really wanted to see a couple of them too. 

“So today we have,” Sam was messing with the paper on his clip board, “Tyler and Mark!”

Mark turned to Jack, who was looking up at him worriedly, he's just so worried I'll pummel Tyler into the ground. 

Mark cracked his knuckles, trying to look like an action movie character as if to scream “Fight me!” at the top of his lungs, but highly exaggerated.

Hed already made it past two matches in the makeshift tournament Sam had made, and he won both, so he’d just do it again. Who cares if it's Tyler hes fighting? Of course, Tyler won his fair share too, that's how tournaments work.

Tyler was already standing on Sam's other side, smiling over to him.

Mark threw him an exaggerated smile before getting into a mock fighting stance

“Someone's ready” Sam said as he moved out of the circle, saying something to the circle as he passed the pillars. 

The smaller green pillars sunk back into the floor, leaving only the health pillars and the painted circle, a soft green glow signifying the enchantment. 

“3, 2, 1!” Sam called from outside the circle. 

A buzzing pink light had started to glow from Tyler's hands as he stepped backwards, mimicking Marks fighting stance for a moment.

He was nervous, he only let his light though when he was using his powers, when he was fighting, and when he was nervous. And they weren't fighting yet. 

Granted, Mark couldn't say he wasn't nervous either, he'd been nervous about having to fight one of the others since they started the fights.

Punching people wasn't fun, especially when that person was one of your friends, even if it wasn't real. Hurting people all wasn't fun, Mark was much more of a “save people from the bad guys” kind of kid. Punching people just hurt his knuckles and left a bad taste in his mouth.

Mark stared at Tyler from across the circle for a moment, letting a deep breath out of his nose. He was going to win this.

Mark took a tentative step closer to Tyler, who met him with a similar movement. They mirrored each other for a moment, one would step closer, the other back, neither wanting to truly make a move on the other. 

“Fight!” Sam called from somewhere outside the circle.

Mark met his friends eyes from the other side of the circle, then shrugged. He shot forward and in one quick movement, he was on Tyler’s other side. He’d practiced this before, he’d definitely win this fight. 

Meeting Tyler's eyes as he shrugged, before shooting forward, in one quick movement he was on Tyler's other side, he'd practiced this. This definitely wasn't even his first fight.

Mark elbowed Tyler in the side, quickly withdrawing to the other side of the circle.

Hed practiced distracting his opponent with small blows before, it was one of the most basic moves, but clearly Tyler knew him too well to fall for his petty ‘strategy’

He turned to look at the health pillars, the red one, Tyler's, had fallen barely an inch. 

He didn't want to actually punch Tyler, that would not be fun for either of them if they actually fought. 

You aren't hurting him. You can't actually hurt him. Mark beat the thought into his head as he sidestepped past Tyler again, dodging him to the other side of the circle. His shoulder collided with the wall of the circle, a buzzing feeling stinging the skin on his arm. The enchantment prevented either of them from actually getting hurt or leaving the circle. For safety reasons. 

He'd have to actually land a hit eventually.

Tyler had shot forward, missing Mark by barely an inch. 

Mark turned around from his dodge, probably not as gracefully as he'd hoped. He tried to clock Tyler in the side of the head.

Clearly Tyler was smart enough to know what Mark was doing, he had already moved out of the way catching Marks leg as he moved, tripping him.

Marks face hit the gym floor hard. If the enchantment wasn't there to keep him from feeling pain, he wouldn't be in the best shape right now. 

The blue pillar sunk farther into the floor.

He could vaguely hear the cheers from the other students from outside of the circle. 

Mark shot back up from the ground, staring up at Tyler, who had moved to the other end.

The soft glow of Tyler's hands had turned into the familiar sharp lights that escaped from his fist, casting a pink light over the both of them.

Tyler had been waiting for him to get up.

Mark made it across the circle in one clean movement, defaulting back to his strategy and knocking Tyler on the back with his elbow before jumping back a few feet, dodging a unsure blow by Tyler.

He won't get mad at you for punching him, it's part of the game. Mark told himself, rolling back on the heels of his feet to dodge another badly timed hit.

Mark aimed for another strike when Tyler cut him off, roughly pushing him a few feet back.

That wasn't strategy that was just rude.

It was still allowed and Tyler was stalking a few steps closer to him.

Mark bounced back on his feet, taking a quick glance at the pillars, his pillar was lower than Tyler's, but they were both about halfway down already.

Still even with Tyler's being lower, one good hit could win it for either of them. 

Tyler shot forward while Mark was looking away, what he was aiming to do Mark didn't have quite the time to catch.

Tyler had faltered, giving Mark the chance to quickly catch him over the side of the jaw with his fist. 

Tyler jerked backwards, hand moving to rub his jaw where it had been hit.

Mark could feel it echoing in his knuckles, the fuzzy feeling like his hand had fallen asleep. Punching people was never fun, even if they couldn't ‘really’ feel it. He shook his wrist to rid himself from the feeling. 

The last quarter of Tyler's pillar sink into the ground as the smaller green pillars rose back from the gym floor.

Tyler laughed as he followed Mark out of the circle “good game!” 

“You ok?” Tyler asked, moving to sit down beside Mark while the next pair got ready. 

“Yeah of course” Mark laughed, shaking him off. 

“Good.” Tyler nodded his head slowly, turning to watch the next match fight.

Of course Tyler would bounce back from literally being punched by asking if Mark was ok.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to fight any of the others any time soon.

The rest of the class went by too fast, cheering at every well executed move and every ill timed stumble that lost the match. It was fun really, Matches were some of the best moments of gym class.

They had barely finished two more matches when sam called them to head to the locker rooms to get changed. 

The green light faded as Sam turned off the circle, the students slowly getting up from the ground. 

“Your set to go tommorow, against jaiden.” Tyler said to Ethan, walking a few feet ahead of him.

“Wait how'd you know?” Mark asked, walking up to his other side. 

“He had it posted on the door” Tyler said as if Mark should have known already. He was in a rush, of course he wouldn't notice. 

They hurry to get changed, throwing back on their school clothes and walking back accross the hallway. Once in the gym they sat by the wall near the door, waiting for the bell to go off.

Ethan's already sitting by the door when Jack and Mark get there. And he's talking to jaiden when Mark gets close enough to hear. Ethan had been asking her something offhand about the enchantment homework. 

“Oh, it's just that word-phrasing work sheet.” Jaiden comments, messing with some papers she had stuffed into a folder, which in turn she had stuffed into her purse. It still wasn't fair girls could carry around purses and guys couldn't carry around bags. Technically they were allowed drawstrings for their gym clothes and other stuff, but what ever happened to good old backpacks. 

“Oh cool, i did that during break” Ethan looks up from his conversation to smile at Mark and Jack. 

Mark returned the smile before turning to Jack, “oh, and english is next” 

Jack hums as the two settle down against the padded wall of the gym. 

They sit for a few minutes, both unable to find a conversation set up that seemed worth the energy. 

The bell rings, shocking them from the silence and students started filtering out of the gym past them. 

Mark popped the joints in his fingers absentmindedly as him and Jack as they walked down the hallway towards his next class. Towards the end of the day the hustle of the halls slowed down as everyone started to care less about getting to wherever they needed to go. 

Jack had stopped looking around himself as if every student in the hall was a personal threat to his personal well being, which was a nice sign. He couldn't say he expected Jack to be used to the school in a matter of a day, but he's glad he doesn't look scared anymore.

He's started to look at the students and classrooms he's passing with more of thinly veiled interest, concealing a layer of slight fear aimed at everything and anything. At least he was trying to seem more calm, but he still had an underlying cautiousness to his movements. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long for him to get used to his surroundings. 

“I can't believe i have english all the way on the other side of the school.” Mark complained, a masterful conversation starter, he should be proud of it.

‘Where is it?” Jack said from beside him, softly, with little interest falling through his tone.

“Oh, it's over near my locker, so i'll put away my gym clothes on the way there.” Mark answered. 

They walk for a moment, slow conversation drawing off into comfortable silence. Mark stops and opens his locker, quickly throwing his bag into the pretty much empty locker. Jack was still sticking close to Mark's side, not daring to stray more than a foot away for fear of getting lost.

Mark and Jack stroll into the classroom at the same time as a couple other students and most of the class is already sitting at their desk and in small conversations.

Mark quickly catches the eyes of the kid that normally sits next to him, quickly nodding his head towards Jack. He didn't seem to mind getting pushed out of his usual spot, moving to sit next to one of his friends that sat a few seats over.

Mark looked up to Jack, who was staring at the living wood on the teacher’s podium just like he did earlier. Not a good idea. Once again, he knows Jack has probably never seen it before, which is a strange thought. Hell have to add that to the list of things he needs to explain to Jack. 

Mark catches Jack's attention by elbowing his softly in the side, “let's sit over here?” Mark leads Jack to his usual seat.

Kathryn is already sitting in the desk in the row to his left. She's got her homework out, for a moment he assumes it's today's homework. But of course The Kathryn Knutz wouldn't miss a day's homework. She probably convinced someone who had english earlier in the day to give it to her. Probably Signe or Amy. 

“I still can't believe we're stuck with third lunch until next month.” she complained, not looking up to Mark from her papers. 

“Right? By the time we get to eat all the good food is taken.”

“Sucks!”

Ms. whik stood up from where she was sitting at her desk, “if you hear my voice stand up.” most of the students immediately dropped their conversations and stood from their desk, the rest slowly following, confused. 

The room was quiet for a moment, the students still standing. “Isnt it magical that things first grade teachers do still work on almost-adults?” She laughed before sitting back down in her own desk. “Ok, now that my class is listening to me, lets get started on today's doings.” she said, messing with some papers on her desk. 

“First up it appears we have a shadow, hello shadow, what do you go by?” she said, smileing. 

“Jack?” Jack shrunk into his seat as he talked.

“Congrats, anyways, Reminder that we'll be starting out first novel of the year today, Its Kindle Wood by Jason Boui.”

“That’s the book that takes place during the witch trials, in europe, around the time the sanctuaries were created, for obvious reasons.” Mark said towards Jack. 

Jack nodded at him before turning back to ms.whik, who was writing something on the board.   
Mark was still starving. And now he had to wait through what was no doubt his most boring class of the day. 

Before he got the chance to complain some more Ms.Whik had moved on from the new novel and was droning on about something else. 

She had handed the students in the front row papers, telling them to take one and pass it down the row.

Oh, thats right, thats a thing that's happening, The vocab test was today. 

Mark had always been good with words, he'd never really had to study for these test, as long as they were multiple choice and he didn't actually have to remember the words. 

When the paper got back to him he scribbled his name over the top. “Mark Fischbach.” also known as the kid who forgot to study again. Looking back on his past mistakes, he should have taken mats advise and studied during break.

After circling what might have been the right answers he walked to the front of the room and placed his paper in the bin with all the other finished test. 

After walking back to his spot and flopping into his desk, Mark immediately sunk into the metal chair. 

Mark laid his head on his desk with a sigh. He was in the back of the room so Ms.Whik probably wouldn't even notice if he just shut his eyes. 

He hadnt slept well last night, technically he hadn’t slept well in months. It depends on your definition of well.

Marks definition of well happened to be “at all” and like he said, he didn't sleep well. 

The hum of the teacher's voice faded out as Mark closed his eyes.

What felt like barely a moment later Mark woke up with a sharp pain in his hand, it felt like he'd been burned and left a humming pain in his knuckles for a moment.   
He must have fallen asleep with it bent under his arm funny. His fault for falling alseep at school. 

He really needs to fix his sleep schedule. 

Mark slowly pulled his head from the desk, wiping the wet spot he probably drooled on with his sleeve. Ms.Whik was currently talking to some kid by the door, he had a tissue pressed to his nose. He must have a nosebleed. Who gets a nosebleed during a test, that's awfully stupid. 

The lunch bell rings above him, scaring Jack and a few other kids. For a moment he assumed it was for second lunch, but after a moment everyone starts getting up. He must have been asleep longer than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for some angst next chapter!
> 
> Also check out @mythtube!


	9. son

“Hey wait, i still have all y'all for another four minutes sit back down,” Ms.Whik said, disinterested, from her podium, waving down the students who had gotten up.

Mark messed with his hair as he sat up in his desk, turning to Jack, who was sitting in desk next to his, he didn't even look confused, hed just accepted what the teacher had said. 

“The bell was for the sixth years, it's their last year here so they get all kinds of perks, it's annoying now but i'm sure we'll appreciate it when were in their shoes.” Mark explained.

Jack hums in response and continues scribbling something on a paper he'd apparently been given at some point. 

He probably shouldn't have fallen asleep, Ms.Whik had probably sarcastically made fun of Mark for falling asleep and ‘abandoning’ his shadow before giving Jack a paper to play with quietly while everyone else took the test. 

Mark almost assumed he was writing before he remembered Jack couldn't read, let alone write. 

He was currently drawing lines and scribbles over the back of the paper like he was trying to figure out how the pencil works. He probably was.

“You have like no fine motor skills, do you?” Mark laughed, smiling as he looked over at his friend. 

Jack looked up from his paper, “what?” 

“Nevermind” Mark laughed, not wanting to get into it. 

Jack went back to scribbling fairy quickly, it seemed he had graduated from lines and scribbles to ‘drawing himself’ as he had said. It looked like the kind of stuff parents would put on their fridge. 

Mark would have to grab it as he walked out of the room for lunch. 

“Alright, y'all can go now” Ms.Whik said from the front of the classroom. After a moment students started to flow out of the classroom and into the hallway. 

Mark quickly spots Ethan a few paces down the hallway, trying to keep against the wall. 

Mark waved to catch his attention, calling out to Ethan. 

“What's the lunch today?” Mark asked as he moved to walk next to him. 

“Its fishsticks again I think?” Ethan said.

“Hey, hey Jack!” Mark called to get Jack's attention. He's a few steps behind them, very clearly watching a group of higher years talk. Mark silently adds ‘eavesdropping’ to the list of things he has to teach Jack. 

“What, yes?” Jack asked, catching up to Mark and Ethan.

“Jack, you’re going to love the lunch today” Mark jokes, deliberately pulling Jack into their conversation. 

“What is it?” Jack looked exited.

“Its magical, the miracle that can only be simultaneously undercooked and burnt fish sticks.” Mark laughed. 

“Fish?” Jack said, quickly catching up to them, the fins that covered his ears were perked up.

‘We'll have to get you some actual good fish, there's a really good sushi place in the city, this weekend i swear we’ll go out on the town” Ethan looked up at Mark as he talked, making it a question instead of a statement.

“It might be sooner than that, we have to go Winter shopping soon,” Mark paused, “and regular shopping, just a lot of shopping.” Mark commented as they entered the crowded cafeteria. 

Mark looked out the long window that ran along the far wall of the cafeteria. Through them he could see the outdoor seating, concrete tables that sat on a small patio, it was the edge of the yard and quickly dropped into a rugged hill that fell into the mountain. 

“Hey, we’ll have to eat outside today, Signe and Pam are already out there.” Mark said, grabbing a tray from rack. 

“Sounds good.” Ethan said. 

“Oh, look at those beauts” Mark laughs, jutting his chin towards the fish sticks lunch ladies were hurriedly placing on paper plates. 

“Gross.” Ethan echoed from behind him.

After they pay for their lunches and get ketchup in those little paper cups, they head outside, Mark holds the door open with his foot while the others squeeze through. 

“It's so cold out here!” Ethan complains immediately after getting through the door.

“Yeah, that's how things work outside” Mark mocks, letting the door close behind him. 

Mark waves at Pam as he throws his tray onto the concrete table. 

“Why are these tables so cold!” Ethan says as they sit down on the frozen cement picnic tables. 

“It's not even that cold yet” Signe laughs. 

“Yeah, Ethan it's still like, like seventy out!” Pam agrees after a moment. 

“It's fifty!” Ethan defends himself, holding his elbows up awkwardly so they didn't touch the table. 

“And that's not cold!” Mark waves his fork around in the air as he talks. 

“Seriously Ethan, you are always cold” signe laughed.

“It's his cold, dead, unbeating heart” Mark supplied, doing a bad imitation of the shakespeare holding the skull thing. Mark doesn't know what its called specifically but it seems like the others got the joke. 

“Mark, you’re the worst” Signe laughs at him. 

Mark let out an intentionally obnoxious laugh.

“I swear, this food get worse every year” Pam had stopped complaining about Ethan for a moment to complain about the food. 

“Pam, this is your first year, this is all of our first year, we’re first-years, it's in the name.” mark laughed. 

“Ok first, you know well that i've basically lived in this school since i was born, second of all, you of all people should agree with me, you've literally lived here since you were born.”

“I didn't say i didn't agree with you, just making fun of your word choice.” Mark said. 

Pam stuck out her tongue out at him.

“Speaking of this terrible food, Jack what's the verdict?” Mark turned to look at Jack, who was picking at his food with the fork like he wasn't quite sure what it was. 

“What?” Jack didn't look up from his investigation. 

“Are they acceptable?” Mark asked. 

“I don't know, they taste pretty good I guess.” Jack says, completely unironically, it's pretty sad.

Pam laughed at that, coughing on his food. 

“We really need to get you some good food sometime” Ethan jokingly put his hand on Jack's tray as a sign of support.

“This is an intervention.” Pam said mock-seriously placing his hand on top of Ethans. 

“Really, the only cooked fish he's had is this and McDonald's.” Mark complained on his friend's behalf. 

Pam and Signe looked appalled.

“That's… just sad” Signe said, mimicking Ethan and putting her hand on Ethan's tray. 

After the bell rings, signifying the end of their lunch period, it takes them a few minutes to even realize it. 

It isn't until a teacher comes outside and yells at them that they, and the rest of the students eating outside, notice the disappearance of the other half of their student body. 

Thats a problem with the school right there, the bell rings inside, so the poor kids eating outside almost never hear it. You’ve got to stay vigilant if you want to reap the winnings of frozen cement tables and the overwhelming smell of pine needles that came with eating outside. 

Mark reached to grab his tray, the skin on his knuckles scratching on the cement. “We gonna go to take in our trays?” Mark asked, standing up to walk towards the door. 

“No, we've decided to leave them here today.” Pam said sarcastically as she got up to follow Mark inside. 

The others followed in behind them as Mark kicked open the door, still holding his lunch tray with both hands. 

Once they make it into the wash line Mark quickly tipped what was left of his half-cooked fish sticks into the trashcan and gave the lunch lady his tray. Jack was a moment behind him, trying to mimic his actions. He might of thrown his fork away, but that's fine. 

“Hey Jack?” Mark back to his friend. 

“Yeah?” came the call from behind him. As he started walking out of the cafeteria.

“Just wanted to let you know that since my power hasn't shown yet i don't really go to a special class for this period.” Mark ran a hand through his hair with the best fake laugh he could muster. 

Jack just hummed in response, following Mark down the hall. 

“So, yeah! Wanna go to the courtyard?” Mark asked. 

“Can we?” Jack flicked his tail as he swam a little higher. “Its like outside again isnt it?”

“Of course!” Mark laughs. 

“Its smells like pine needles outside.” Jack mumbled as they walked side by side down the hallway towards the courtyard. 

“Yeah, it also makes your food taste like pine needles, that's the appeal of eating outside.” Mark laughed. 

“Really?” Jack quickly looked up at him.

“No, its disgusting.” Mark laughed at Jack's dejected look as he pushed open the door that lead out into the courtyard. 

“So this is the courtyard!” Mark says, keeping the door open for Jack while taking a cursory glance across the yard. 

One of the art classes must have decided to work out here today, they were sitting at the wire patio tables towards the corner, sketchbooks up to their chest and struggling to draw the trees growing in the yard. 

Mark's eyes caught on the Opal fountain in the center for a moment. It was a large statue of Opal Stone, the namesake of the city. He let his eyes drift pass it to the Every-fruit-tree, the sixth year’s enchantment class had worked together to make it quite a few years ago. There was a plaque he'd have to read sometime that sat near the base of the tree. The idea was to make a tree that was supposed to grow every fruit possible, which backfired on the students when the largest setback of the project was arguments over whether it should grow tomatoes or not. His dad had told him that story lots of times, apparently one of the kids was in his patrol. 

He was the same guy who made the circle in the gym actually, Mr.Blinding-Green-Light himself. He was some sort of child prodigy. Mark really shouldn't be bad mouthing him though, he went missing the day of his Dad’s graduation. It was still a touchy subject for what was left of his patrol.

“Hey Jack, want to see something cool?” Mark knew Jack would be absolutely astounded by the tree. 

“Sure?” Jack asked, turning to look towards Mark. 

“hey, over here” Mark tried to herd Jack towards the tree.

“The fountain?” Jack asked, “it looks like the one in the city”

“No, the tree?” Mark said, pointing towards it. 

“What About It?” Jack cocked his head to the side as he looked at it. 

“Its enchanted” Mark explained.

“Really? With what?” Jack asked. 

“Take a closer look” Mark laughed.”

“Its an oak tree, clearly, but its got fruits growing on it?” Jack was still looking at the tree. 

“What kind of fruit?” Mark tried to lead him on. 

“Many?” Jack laughed. 

“It's the every fruit tree! It grows every fruit you can think of! And a ton more!” Probably a lot more, Mark severely doubted Jack knew every kind of fruit. 

Jack moved his arm as if to reach into the branches before stopping, letting his arm hover in the air. “Wait, can i pick something?”

“Yeah go for it” Mark said, letting his eyes drop from Jack towards the plaque at the base of the tree. 

The Everything Tree was carved onto the plaque in fancy writing, followed by the wording of the enchantment. Ethan would probably understand the intricacies of how good it was, that it was detailed but concise. But Mark didn't really understand. Under the enchantment was a list of names, the students who helped make it. Most of the names he didn't recognise, Ethan's mom was there, of course, his dad had pointed that out before. 

Yeah, there it was, not to many lines up from the bottom. kristian Judadera, Mark vaguely remembers his dad pointing out his name once. When Mark had first met Ethan, Dad said he reminded him of Kris. 

Mark settled down to sit with his back against the trunk of the tree. Jack was floating a few feet above the ground, fins spread out to try and balance himself while he rummaged through the trees foliage. 

“I found it!”

“Found what?”

Jack was quiet for a moment before saying “This thing!” he slid down next to Mark, now holding a lemon.

“The lemon?” Mark laughed, He does know its sour right?

“Yes! Robin gave me one! Theyre so good!” Jack was smiling widely. 

“Yes, yes they are. “ Mark agreed. 

“How… how do i open it.” Jack was rolling the lemon in his hand. 

Mark laughed at that, “you've gotta peel it”

“Oh! I know... Robin did that before” Jack was still inspecting the lemon’s rind. 

“Here, i'll help” Mark laughed, gently stealing the lemon from Jack and peeling off the rind like he would a clementine. Strange way 

“Thanks!” Jack said as Mark handed him the now peeled lemon. 

Jack was happily chewing on the whole lemon, which was concerning. Mark didn't say anything, he wasn't hurting anyone. They did need to fix his pallet at some point. At least take him out to eat somewhere that wasn't fast food. Or entire lemons.

Mark was distracted from analyzing Jack’s peculiar taste in fruit when a large brown bird fluttered down from over the roof of the school, landing awkwardly on the ground with a shuffle of wings.

“Oh, hey ross!” Mark greeted him. The outline of the birds figure seemed to blur for a moment, the individual feathers melting into a blackish purple goo. The overall shape seemed to stretch as it turned into the vague outline of a human, settling into the familiar shape of ross.

He had short brown hair that fell over the sharp corners of his face, cupping his slightly grey skin. He holds himself not quite properly for a moment before straightening his back and looking up at him with unfinished eyes. 

“I really need to practice flying, i suck.” Ross shook his head as the hair on his head separated into individual light brown hairs.

“I thought you were about to crash into the tree.” Mark laughed. 

“I'm not that bad.” Ross defended himself. 

“Anyways, why aren't you in special?” Mark asked, looking up at ross. 

“Mr. fords missing our period.” Ross said, pacing a few feet away before walking back again.

Mr.ford is someone else in his Dad's patrol, he was a shapeshifter and teaches the class for the shapeshifting special.

Well, ‘was a shapeshifter’ as in not anymore. Past tense. He's still technically a shapeshifter but he lost the ability in an accident around the time he graduated. 

“Ah, well if he's gone, you want to hang out?” Mark asked.

“”Sure but i have to be back in like ten minutes. It's a sub but i'm not ditching.” Ross said. 

“Yeah, sounds good.” Mark turned to Ross, who was now staring at Jack. 

“Anyways, whos the shadow?” Ross turned to meet his gaze. 

“Jack!” Jack still has his tail to his chest, still eating a lemon, still leaning on the tree next to Mark. 

“My names Ross, i’m a shapeshifter!” Ross tried to shake Jack's hand, who only looked up at him for a moment.

“I could see, you were a bird” Jack cocked his head to the side. 

“A kookaburra!” ross took his arm back after a moment, question in his eyes Mark didn't answer. 

“Cool” Jack said from beside him. 

“Its definitely one of my new favorite forms, i mean im not very good at it yet though” he said softly, now facing Mark completely. 

“Ok, i really need to go, I don't want the sub to question why i was out so long.” Ross said. 

“By!” Mark said.

“Oh! By” Jack echoed, juice dribbling down his chin.

“You want to just sit here eating unlimited fruit or go do something else? We could go compliment the art kids?” Mark looked up over to where the art kids were still drawing. 

“Can we go back to the Inside forest?” Jack looked up from where he was standing. 

“The… the discovery forrest?” Mark asked, what a cute thing to call it, inside forest, he'd have to write that down. Mark got up from the ground, stretching out the knots in his back from sitting all day. 

“Yeah, that thing!” Jack sat up from the tree, following after Mark. 

The walk from the courtyard to the stables was rather quick, Jack continued his never ending game of twenty-questions and Mark played along. 

“Can we see the fire bird?” Jack asked, shooting a sideways glance from where he was walking a few feet away across the yard. 

“The blue and gold phoenix?” Mark asked.

“Sure” Jack moved to walk closer to him. 

“Yeah, sure, we can see leroy” Mark said. 

“Leroy?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, thats his name, i heard he's been in a good mood recently he keeps talking to the visitors” Mark commented. 

“He can talk?” Jack sounded shocked, like hed never heard of a parrot talking before. Well of course he hadn't, but it's still common knowledge. 

“Well yeah, he's a macaw phoenix, he can like imitate people talking and stuff, like a dog trick” Mark explained. 

“Woah”

“Hes adorable.”

Jack nodded, as he followed Mark into the stables lobby.

Immediately after letting the door close behind him Mark almost walks face first into someone. Mark almost backs into Jack, surprised. 

Taking a closer look Mark realized it was James, a draco that he'd seen a few times before. He was best friends with Jaiden from gym class, so a friend of a friend. Meaning they hung out during break once or twice. 

The other boy is still pacing back and forth across the lobby. Wings held tight to his back and tail swaying behind him. 

“James? You ok? Why aren't you in class?” Mark asked.

James waves his hand in the direction of the “Tameable Veterinary” sign on the door, stopping his pacing to talk to Mark. “Yes-Yeah i'm fine, my animation, marshmallow, he's just redrawing right now.” 

“Oh, i hope he's ok,” Mark let his gaze follow James’ towards the Veterinary sign again for a moment. 

“Ok? I hope so to” James laughed, fingers catching on his horns as he ringed his hand through his hair.

“Im sure he's doing fine” Mark tried to assure him, it was terrible when your tameables not doing well. 

“Yeah! Me two!” James was starting to sound like he couldn't catch his breath.”  
“Woah, dude im sure its fine, slow down.”

Jack had swam over to them and was now looking at James in confusion “what's an animation.”

James Scrunched his eyebrows at him for a second before Mark caught his attention. “Sorry about that, he's lived under a rock for the past seventeen years.” 

Mark turned to Jack, who looked like he didn't understand what he did wrong. 

“Sorry Jack, an animation is a type of tameable, they look almost 2-d, flat like a piece of paper.” Mark paused, unable to articulate it, “um, they look drawn, they take on the artstyle of their owner, so when the owner gets better at drawing they ‘redraw’” “like a snake shedding its skin, but alot more painful and takes like all of the little dudes energy.” Mark was staring at James as he talked for confirmation he wasn't getting anything wrong. He hadn't worked with Animations before. 

Mark turned back to James again, who looked more confused than anything, at least he didn't look like he was about to pass out anymore.

“James, is there anything you need? Water? Emotional support?” Mark asked.

“Just, just come with me to check on him?” James asked, turning back to the woman working at the waiting room desk. 

“Oh, of course, we weren't doing anything anyway.” Mark let his eye fall to Jack, who seemed to understand. They weren't going to make it to the discovery forest today. 

“Rallison.” the woman from the waiting desk calls.

James’ wings perk up immediately at that, “thanks” he looked over to Mark as they followed the woman into the Veterinary.

The walk following her to James’ tameables room was quiet. Mark kept looking back to see Jack with his fins held rightly to his tail, following closely. 

They pass the rooms used for check ups and move to go down stairs to the stay-in rooms, If they had kept walking down stairs they would have ended up in the Embassador center, that connects to education, the more zoo like side of the stables. Hed only been in the back side of education once or twice with his father.

The woman stopped abruptly in front of hallway, a sign hung above saying Student Hallway, where they housed recovering tameables owned by students. 

They passed housing for everything from sandpiper tortoises to hellhounds as they walked down the recovery center. 

“Are they all sick?” Jack said from behind him.  
“No, they are in recovery, which means they're not sick anymore but are still getting better.” Mark answered. 

After a moment the woman stopped them next to a small enclosure. An animation, presumably marshmallow, was staring up at them. 

“Heres little Marshmellow, he should be fine to take back to dorm by the end of the day” the woman said softly. 

It was a small thing, about a foot tall and about as thick as a slab of cardboard. It was a very rounded artstyle, James was really good at art. 

“Hes adorable!” Mark looked up at james, who was already pressed up against the glass. His animation had already moved to stare up at him quizzically. 

“Hello, little buddy” Mark smiled down at the animation. Tameables were so cute, he'd spent a lot of time volunteering at the recovery while his dad worked here when he was younger. He’d dream of when his power would show and he could calm them like his dad or talk to them like his mom, or some other statistically possible animal themed power.

Most people’s powers show around the age of six, Ethan's grandma once told them her daughter showed from the moment she was born, but that was likely to not be true. 

He was about 11 years later now, but that doesn't mean it wont show. Six? Seventeen? Practically the same age. 

After a while longer of playing with Marshmallow with James, Mark finally decided to check the time on his phone. Which he technically wasn't allowed in school anyway, but who doesn't? Probably emerald, but still, he needs to check the time? Does the administration think they all have watches or something? 

About time they started heading back to the school for patrol studies. 

Mark wished James luck as they left the stables. 

“Ok, so its time for patrol studies” Mark comments as the two of them walk out of the stables. 

Jack is swimming only a few feet ahead of him in the grass. Every few minutes he'd bring the larger fins on the sides of his tail forward and back again to push himself forward. 

They were walking step by step down the slight hill of the yard. Or as close to step by step you can get when one person doesn't have legs. 

“So what do we do in your next class?” Jack asked, looking over his shoulder at Mark. 

“In our next class? Patrol studies, we learn how to be a patrol and stuff” Mark laughed “we learn how to like, do mock patrols and stuff, its alot of fun.’

“oh cool’ Jack smiled back up at him as they walked back into the school.

“Ok, class is starting like any second now, we better hurry” Mark quickly shot a glance at Jack before pushing through the hallway. 

“Oh! Ok” Jack quickly followed after him. 

They walk through the crowded hallways rather quickly, not really running, more of a brisk jog. They made it into the classroom just as the bell rang.

The rest of Carnelian was already sitting in the classroom, along with the Emerald patrol. Cool, they must be paired with Mat and Steph this week. They always paired two or three patrols together, depending on that weeks lesson. 

The Emerald patrol, which was Mat, Steph, Chris and Jason, plus the five of them, in carneilian. That's nine kids for this weeks pairing. Last week they'd been paired with a patrol of six, so now that they had two more students it evens out, funny. 

Which means Emerald has been doing this week's activities alone all week. 

That's, not good. Marks sorry for them really, it depends what teacher they had. 

Mark’s train of thought is interrupted by Mr.Ford walking in. He moved to stand in the front of the room. Mr.ford stood over the podium, looking over the students with his one good eye. 

Mr.Ford was the Shapeshifting teacher, but all the teachers switched turns for different Patrol Studies classes. He taught shapeshifting, but since something bad happened years ago, he had lost the ability. The left side of his face looked as if it was stuck on the transfer between forms, frozen in a state where its not fully formed as ‘human’. If he hadn't have known Mr.Ford since he was a kid, he probably would think his scar was terrifying. And if Jack's quick looks from the teacher, to Mark with a questioning gaze, then back to the teacher again were anything to go by. The others were in fact, terrified. 

Mark elbowed Jack in the side with a pointed glare, hoping to get across some semblance of manners to him.

Mr.ford had already started to explain the day, in hindsight Mark probably should be listening. It was something about a search and rescue, like natural disaster stuff.  
Wow, they should totally get an A in this class, they've already done this. It was terrifying, they almost died, like eight times. But they didn't really search, more like happenstanced upon victims, but they did rescue. 

After a moment more explaining their search and rescue game, that was apparently the test for that weeks class, and that in Mr.Fords words “Emerald better catch you all up quick, as you've been absent recently” which was rude. Mr.ford lead the students out into the far yard, the one that lead into the forest. 

Mat quickly explains that it's a thing for tracking, they have to find their ‘hurt person’ by following the tracks they left, using what they learned. 

Emerald are very good at this, within about three seconds of starting Jason had found a pair of boot tracks leading down by the creek. 

The tracks clearly lead to the other side of the creek, It hadn't rained too much recently, so the creek was more of a trickle. 

While crossing Mat tripped on a loose rock and fell harshly into the dry indent with a small trickle of water running through it. Mark refused to refer to it a stream. 

Mat had crawled out of the creekbed with the help of Steph, when he spoke up loudly “Wow. Jason, i can't believe you've messed up everything this badly” Mat turned to laugh as he looked back to his patrolmate, who was still waiting on the other bank. “i mean, now my leg hurts and i think i need chris to heal me.” Chris was a healer, and blaming everything that can and will go wrong on Jason is an inside joke in their patrol. 

“I didn't do anything!” Jason called back from his bank, mock-offended.

“Jason, i can't believe you!” Steph yelled back.

Jason just stared at her, fake pouting in return.

“yah, its jasons fault, i agree” Chris said, jumping over the gap of the creekbed. 

“Chris? How could you betray me like this?” Jason laughed. 

“blame jason” Mark decided to join in, jumping over the creek. 

“Why?” Jason smiled. 

“blame jason” Mat echoed. 

“He didnt do anything?” Chris laughed. 

“Ok sorry, blame Jason and Chris” Mat ‘corrected’ himself. 

“The tracks lead this way!” Mark called from a few feet ahead of everyone else. Mark doesn't try to always be the first in line, he actually enjoys following another leader when he can. It just kind of happens. Call him a control freak, say it's an effect of being the son of a world leader, but he's a bit of a control freak. Call it a cause or call it an effect, but people always pick him as leader, and he happens to like playing the leader. 

Mark quickly followed the tracks through the predictive pattern of around a few trees and under a drop off of the mountain where he found Ms.Beer pretending to be hurt in a ditch. 

They applied ‘first aid’ and ushered her back to the classroom. Ms.Beer didn't make a good hurt innocent, she started laughing at them whenever they messed something up. That definitely ruined the illusion that this was a real patrol. Knowing Mr.Ford was probably watching from the bushes also made it hard to take seriously. 

They had settled back down and Mr.Ford had given them a rather harsh assessment, pointing out they shouldn't be joking around while on ‘patrol’. 

The end of the day announcements started with the sound of the old mic popping over the intercom. You'd think Opal Sanctuary University could afford something better. At least their priorities show. Captain talks on and on about some club meeting after school. Catching Mark's attention right at the end by saying “Carnelian patrol, please take your shadows back to your dorm immediately after school, and Mark Fischbach, please report to my office after announcements.” the class immediately turned to stare at him, disinterested looks still wanting to know what he did to get called to the office. 

Mark collected his stuff and followed the others out of the classroom.

“Hey Jack, go with Tyler and the others, i've been paged to the office.”

After strolling into the office Mark turns to the secretary, Mrs.Manning “What did you want?” he gives her a curt nod as he adresses her. 

“Your dad wants to see you” she answers, not looking up from the call she was on. 

Mark walked down the darkly lit hallway to his dad's office, the quiet lights are to scare kids he's about to give a detention, most of the “scarier” things about his dad are just for show. 

Mark pushed open the open door to his dad's office. 

Captain was behind his desk, messing with some of the books on one of two lofty bookshelves that reached the ceiling of his office. 

“Mark, why weren't you in school Monday or Tuesday this week.” Captain didn't look up from reorganising his desk. 

Oh, this conversation was happening “We were just camping! The fire was, it was a coincidence!” Mark grappled for a good enough excuse, he's not even lying and he can't form a coherent excuse. 

Captain didn't say anything for awhile, just sat fidgeting with his nicknacks. He was thinking. 

Captain looked at him for a moment before sighing and going back to repositioning some of the nicknacks on his shelf: family pictures, decorative bells, and snow globes.

“Just, just know you can talk to me.” Captain said slowly, picking up a decorative bell and rolling it against the palm of his hand.

Mark nodded, rolling on his heels from where he was standing. 

His dad looked back up at him for a second, smiling softly. 

“We were just camping.” Mark reiterated.

“I assume, so we're they.” Captain let out a soft laugh, “Did they ever give any clues where they were from, maybe recognizing something, or someone?” Captain asked. “Maybe they got amnesia, or… something” 

“No, they both said they lived in the forest.” Mark took a step back from his father’s desk. 

“That, that just doesn't make sense” captain shook his head. 

“... I believe them.” Mark stated. 

“I believe you.” Captain placed the bell back on the shelf with a small clink of ceramics on wood. 

“Dad, they don't know how to read, or at least Jack doesn't, he didn't even know who the stones are!” Mark probably sounded exasperated, he was at the end of his string, confused and unable to process anything anymore. Honestly, Mark is was in way over his head.

“That's...That’s not what I expected.” Captain spoke slowly in his usual soft voice. 

“Me too.” Mark spoke after a long moment. 

“Would you mind helping to tutor them?” Captain looked up from his busy work for a moment. 

“Of-of course.” Mark said quickly. 

“Good, and besides all that” Captain had turned fully and was facing Mark now, “You don't have to worry, I'll take care of it.” 

Captain smiled before turning back to his work, “So, i assumed they would fit in well with Emerald, or wait, didn't you say they had made friends with Aquamarine already?”

“Yeah, they had.” Jack already seemed to like Amy and them a lot, Mark was glad he made fast friends. 

Captain looked up at him “What's the verdict?”

“The verdict?” Mark asked. 

“Which patrol do you think they should join?” Captain said slowly. 

“I want them.” Mark caught his father's eyes when he quickly looked up at him. 

“Mark, you can't possibly expect your patrol to be able to get past so many challenges” Captain said softly. “i mean, you said yourself, they can't even read. “I., i just don't think your patrol has enough power to get past this.”

Mark froze, “Maybe we don't have enough power right now! But we'll find our power, we'll be the best patrol in the university!” 

“Mark, you know i believe in you and all, but you have to accept when you just can't do something.” Captain said. 

“We can do it! I'll teach them myself! Well be better than your patrol ever was! W-we’ll actually graduate!” Mark took a step forward.

Captain froze, the snow globe he was holding slipping from his hand. The glass shattered as it hit dark hardwood floor. The Ceramic base of the snowglobe cracked in two, and a puddle of sparkles and broken glass spreading across the floor. That would never clean up. 

Dad let out a ragged sigh, his breath clearly catching in his throat, “Just go back to your dorm Mark, i'll think about it” 

“Dad, i” Mark started, the anger gone from his voice like a match. 

“Just go Mark, i'll think on it, good night.” Captains voice had lost its usual softness. 

Mark turned to leave. 

“Wait.” captain called from behind him, now sitting rigid in his mahogany desk, rubbing his forehead for a moment. 

“Yes?” Mark asked, tentatively walking back.

“Mark, you ran away from the school and almost killed your whole Damn patrol.” Captain looked up, straightening in his chair. 

Mark stayed silent, looking at the floor. He did have a point, they almost died a couple times. 

After a moment of responseless waiting captain continued, “you can't keep dodging the rules of this school Mark.” 

“you know what could have happened out there!” captain barked, “You could have run into poachers!” Captain ran his hand halfway through his hair before shaking his wrist “You did! You did run into poachers!” he paused, looking down at the desk, “this is what could happen! This is what happened!” 

“Sorry.” Mark was still studying the plywood flooring intently. 

“I can't lose you too” Captain’s gaze fell to the desk again, “get back to your dorm. Please.” 

Captain had his head in his hands when Mark turned to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY


	10. dream

Mark kicked a piece of gravel across the sidewalk, watching as it clattered a few feet further and tumbled into the grass. He slouched his shoulders forward and popped his jaw, knowing full well that he looked like a pouting child, trudging back to his dorm alone. But at the same time, he was in fact a child and reserved his right to act like one. A seventeen year old child who happened to mess things up for everyone else. The one and only Mark Edward Fischbach, professional child extraordinaire. He needed some new job opportunities, hopefully the league of functioning adults was hiring. Not that they'd hire him, anyway. 

After spending another minute shuffling back to his dorm Mark retreated his hands into the sleeves of his shirt as he pulled his arms to his sides. It didn't do much to shield him from the bite of the cold around him. It got to him more when he was alone. It really was easier to ignore the winter air when he was making fun of Ethan or joking around with any of the others. Alone it was different, he was just left to contemplate his world of mild annoyances without distraction. Mark didn't like being alone. 

It left him with too much to think about and too little to actually do, alone with his mind cleared from any petty distraction. It was disheartening really, the moment he stopped to focus he'd always throw himself for a loop with some anxiety riddled train of thought that rattled along tracts set on their path to nowhere. With no one there to help him conduct but himself. 

Alone. Cold and alone. Cold and alone and sad. At the current moment Mark couldn't want anything more than to be none of those things. Most of all he just wants to be asleep. He's cold and judging by the raindrop that decisively landed on his forehead, it was starting to rain. This day just needed to end already. Put itself out of its misery before it found a way to get any worse. So he can go to sleep, probably have another stupid nightmare, and then wake up at two in the mourning. Just like every other night.

Cold tears dried on his cheeks, the tears threatening to return as he shuffled down the sidewalk. He wouldn't let himself cry again, he'd done that enough today. He doesn't look up from the sidewalk as he storms home. He can barely feel the fist he has clenched at his sides in the cold.

He definitely looks like a child having a temper tantrum.

By the time Mark had stormed his way back to the dorm he had worn off most of the anger he had been clutching onto. He had nothing left. He was mainly now just an upset husk of a person on the verge of crying that didn't want to open the door, let alone face the others. God forbid he'd have to talk to the others. 

He must have slammed the door a little too loudly on his way in. The others looked up from whatever show they had been watching, it looked like they were watching boomerang, which was typical enough of a scene to play out in the main room of the carnelian dorm. They were piled on the couch with the expanse of pillows Ethan and Tyler had been using the past couple of nights. Mark can smell the burnt popcorn he must have missed at some point during the night. 

“You ok Mark?” Ethan's head rose from the backside of the couch. Hopefully he couldn't see the tear tracks he'd been sporting in the dark, from all the way across the half-lit room.

“Y-yeah” Mark tried to keep his voice level “yeah I'm fine.” 

“Cool cool” came a response and a thumbs up from the other side of the couch as Ethan dropped behind it, presumably laying back down. Mark didn't even bother to try and make his fake laugh sound real as he escaped to the bedroom.

He didn't respond as he walked past them into the bedroom. Mark quickly closed the door behind himself, leaning with his back against the wooden door. He tried to catch his breath for a second, curling up on himself and sliding to the floor. The others were laughing about something Mark could barely hear muffled through the wall. For a moment he doesn’t bring himself to listen, for once in his life he can't even give mind to whatever he's missing out on. 

After another moment spent trying to level his breathing, Mark clambered into his bunk bed and slammed his face into the pillow. 

Mark sat in darkness. Maybe floating would be a better description, really. It wasn't quite darkness, and he could kind of make out shapes and colors mixing in the midst of the not quite black void. It was more of a purple in reality. If this could be categorized as reality. 

Maybe he was falling, but he couldn't see any indication of a bottom to hit, so he might not be. 

He couldn't seem to breath, like something was blocking his windpipe. His head was under a blanket of static, like he was stuck in that moment right before you pass out. He sat like that, in the quiet for what felt like hours, his lungs long having started burning from lack of air. He could vaguely sense that he was moving, somewhere. Forward? Backward? Both? It didn't matter. 

His vision was black, not in the same way as being blindfolded, but similar enough. His ears rung with a far off high pitched noise, mingling with the fuzz in his head that fell to his finger tips. He was almost certain his every limb was asleep, buzzing with a soft feeling. His nose burned whenever he tried to breath in, like taking a deep breath on an especially cold night. It felt like his depth perception had been cut in half, everything looked almost flat. Two-dimensional with a slight difference in color, really. 

After what must have been hours in the dark, in a split second Mark's vision bled to white. His eyes burned, he tried to move his hands to cover his eyes. Only to realise for the first time that he couldn't move them. He couldn't move at all. 

His eyes burned, but he couldn't close them. His vision fell from white to red to black, then back to burning white again. Too quickly for him to catch the difference but too stark for him to miss the change, all happening in either the blink of an eye or over an expanse of years.

Mark blinked, limbs jerking awkwardly as he realised he could move them again. His vision came back in spots as he regained enough of his surroundings to see he’s sitting on the floor of his dorm’s kitchen. He struggled with a racking breath as he pressed the small of his back against the nook of the kitchen counter. As his vision cleared he realized it's not his dorm, very clearly not his dorm. It doesn't look like any dorm he's ever been in. Yet still he held a strange recollection for it, maybe he'd seen it before. His head felt fuzzy, and his back didn't feel like it was truly touching the cabinet, like there was a cushion of air in the way. He still can't catch his breath as much as he struggled for it, his shoe slid across the linoleum as he struggled for the breath that always seemed to be a few paces ahead of him. 

Everything blurred, like he was looking at the world around him through a smudged up lens. Mark threw a shaking glance across his surroundings. He tried to stand up, only to be thrown back onto the linoleum tiles by the air getting knocked out of his chest. It sent him sputtering for breath on the cold kitchen floor, curled awkwardly against the stove. 

Mark curled into himself for another moment, lungs burning worse than before. He pressed his head against the cabinet as he tried not to pass out. He tried to sit up against the counter. He held a knife tightly in his hand, tight enough for the skin around his knuckles to turn white. He can't even remember when he picked it up, if he ever picked it up at all. He had to have, at some point. 

Its sleek metal blade was drenched with oil-thick blood, the scarlet bubbling from the tip of the blade and dribbling down the side of the knife. Drops of blood fell from the metal face of the knife and rolled off his hand onto the floor. A moment later he noticed the dried blood caked on the tacky off-white tiles of the kitchen. 

He could feel the wind from the window a few feet above him. It had been smashed open, fragments of shattered glass were scattered across the cold linoleum. Looking down at himself, he saw the glass embedded in his own hands. For a moment he didn't recognise them, blood pooling around the cuts and dripping further down his wrist. His breath hitches, for a moment expecting pain that didn't come. All he feels is the tight knots in his chest, still unable to steal ahead of his own baited breath. 

A spark jumped from the point of the knife, burning bright enough to light up the dim room for a moment, before spreading further, allowing its dance of whisp of fire to blanket the entirety of the metal blade. For a second Mark is mesmerised by its show, unable to tear his eyes from the glitter as it danced closer to his hand, still held tightly on the grip. The heat warmed his fingers as it crawled across his knuckles. The skin had started curling into blisters before he had the sense to drop it. Shaking the fire off his hand, it went out in a moment. His brain felt sluggish, it was probably the lack of air, maybe it was the unreality of this whole situation. It took him a second to process that the knife had been sent clattering to the ground, splashing in the seemingly growing puddles of now fresh scarlet blood. 

The fire jumped from puddles of blood like oil catching fire. The room seemed to bend and melt like a fun-house mirror as it filled with lics of flame. He could numbly feel the heat of the fire on his skin, the warmth of it all seemed to call him further into the dormitory, it felt like he had to hold onto the counter to keep himself planted where he stood. 

The exit door was across the melting room. To escape the fire that engulfed the dorm, he’d have to fight his way across the flames. The fire he had to get away from, the fire that was warm. He had to get out of here. The fire, it was, it could bur- it was warm. It was blocking the door. It was his only escape It must be, there's no other immediate way to leave his dorm. He felt the air escape his lungs again as he struggled towards the door, coughing up a lung trying to catch a breath. He twisted the doorknob and threw open the door. From the outside a gush of dark water flooded into the room. The water picked him up and threw him further into the main room of his dormitory. His back collided with the far wall as his vision faded to black.

Mark woke up with a start, grabbing the leg of his bunkbed for a moment, racked with gasping breaths after the sudden realisation that he could properly breath again for the first time in what felt like far too long. His head hurt and his lungs still burned faintly, overall he just felt weaker than anything. 

He almost wanted to go back to sleep, but the nagging in his head told him not to close his eyes again. It was worse tonight, of course it was getting worse. Of course after everything it was getting worse than ever. He still smelled smoke, he was almost numb to the smell of fire in the morning. The knife was new. So was the blood. 

Not much else was new, in a way it was jarring for so much to change in a recurring dream. They're supposed to stay the same, that's what recurring dreams meant. In a way the fire was the only constant he could remember, and the cold of the darkness. He’d been juggling this for too long at this point, he needed to see a therapist or something. Mark rubbed his sleeve across his eyes, smearing wet tears across his face. He was too old for this, too old to let himself cry over nightmares. 

Mark rubbed his temples as he threw off his ratty old blanket. His dad had made sure he brought it to dorm with him, even against Mark’s own protest that he didn't need it. When the school year first started he was almost convinced he wouldn't be able to sleep without it. Of course that wasn't true now. Such a childish thing, needing a blanket. Who does he think he is, Ethan? 

He's actually the oldest in the carnelian dorm, though not by much. Being older than Ethan by a couple months, and beating Tyler by a couple days. Hence why they were all in the same patrol, they were the same age and for that matter the same year of school. First years, for now. 

It was still dark out, either very late or really early. He can't quite tell. He can't hear the sound of the others talking drifting from the living room anymore. So it was more likely to be the latter. 

Mark tried to fix his hair with the palm of his hand as he got out of his bunk. The realization that he never did his homework the night before hitting him hard as he tried to close the bedroom door as quietly as he could muster. Jack and Robin were still asleep, he doesn't want to wake them. It was far too early for any rational human being to be awake and active. Unless you were Mark Fischbach, but he couldn't even really be considered ‘any rational human being’ at this point in his life.

He checked the time on the microwave as he walked into the kitchen, it's two am on the dot, as usual. He does this almost every day, it's become routine for him. At one point he used to tell himself the same speech every every morning. Trust you, me, this is only a one, or two, or maybe three time thing. Vague nightmares come from stress, so reduce your stress and you'll be fine! But he's a Fischbach so of course he won't face his problems, even when they're already threatening him.

Granted, he deals with a lot of stress in his life. An irregular amount of stress at this point. Not to toot his own pity horn or anything, but Mark was stressed beyond belief. 

Mark leaned against the fridge, frowning down at his knuckles, they still hurt like mad, probably from yesterday's gym class. Yesterday almost felt like a vague memory at this point. So much stuff has happened just yesterday alone. God, why did this even hurt. He knows the circle and all, that it's enchanted specifically so you can't get hurt and everything. But it's like a psychological wound, or something. Mark laughed at himself, still stretching his hand while leaning against the fridge. It pretty much felt like his knuckles were broken. That's an exaggeration, but they hurt far too much for it to be his imagination. 

He does have a very good imagination. Like the fact he's telling himself if he asked someone about it, they'd say some psychological thing about how he's “stressed about punching his friend” and be no help at all. Still, the imaginary advice makes some sense “the stress happened to manifest as nightmares” or something. He just needs something to float his boat, at this point, in all honestly. 

He should probably just get his homework done for once in his life, and stop worrying over things that didn't matter. 

Mark silently threw a slice of pizza that's been in the fridge for about a week and a half at least into the microwave. It taste like disappointment, extra cheesy disappointment. A good breakfast is a good start to any day, Mark had always made sure to take that tidbit of motherly advice to heart. Except he doesn't at all, and almost always ends up eating no breakfast or gross old pizza. If the day’s breakfast was a mirror to how good your day will be, judging by the soggy pizza in his hand, Mark was up for anything. 

They had another day of school ahead of them. Maybe he could convince the others to go shopping after school ended. That would be fun. Jack and Robin weren't going to come with them to school again today. Too bad, school wasn't even boring with them yesterday. Even so, it would be useless to have them shadow twice, hopefully they had fun yesterday though? They could probably just leave them in the dorm with the tv and some coloring books and they'd be perfectly fine. Maybe he could set up the old game cube before they left, they’d love that.

Mark crumpled the soggy paper plate the pizza had been on and tossed it in the trash. He'd finished his stale pizza with ingredients he didn't particularly like, which included, but was not limited to: ham, pineapple, extra cheese, extra stale. That last one wasn't something they ordered it with, it comes with a nice forty days of fermentation in the fridge. Like a nice aged wine. 

Mark cut past the living room on his way to the study. At some point Ethan must have pushed Tyler to the floor. He was curled in a blanket and lying partially under the coffee table. Yesterday they had peacefully shared the couch, it was a sad turn of events. Ethan probably made some big deal about how bad his day at school was and how he deserved the full couch. He probably had Tyler eating it right out of his hand. He quickly found the remote and turned off the tv, which was now playing some infomercial to no one. 

At least today was the last day they'd have to share the couch, they'd have their bunk back soon. 

He kicked open the door to the study room and let a cursory glance follow the three almost identical homework desks, each with its own varying level of clutter. 

Of course Tyler's desk was barely cluttered with only a few bland office supplies and the occasional sticky note either him or Ethan had pinned on it. Mainly beautifully created, artistically amazing drawings of dogs. Really, they were frankly a necessity for dorm life, they wouldn't let Tyler throw them away. Not that he’d want to, if they'd let him. Besides the dozens of post-its tagged on his desk, Tyler didn't even have a single pencil left out on his desk that wasn't in its specific assigned spot. 

If Tyler's desk proclaimed its own quintessence of tidiness, Ethan's was its antithesis. His desk was cluttered with an immeasurable amount of knick knacks, had loose papers scattered over the floor, and was only completed with books piled over the desk with no semblance of organisation, left out from whatever he had last been working on. 

Mark’s own desk must have been somewhere in the middle. He had his fair share of loose books and desk toys. But at least he tried to keep them organized. 

He went for more of an aesthetic appeal, like someone could take some nice photography of his desk and title it ‘the beauty of organised disorder’ or something equally pretentious . He had excuses at least. 

After Mark had spent about twenty minutes blankly staring at his unfinished homework, he heard the rustling of the others starting to get up. 

“Mark?” Ethan asked, peering into the study from the doorway.

Mark tore his eyes from his barely started history homework, “what?” he rubbed his eyes as he shoved his homework back into his backpack. 

Ethan stayed quiet for a second, waiting for him by the doorway, “good morning” mumbled, moving backwards into the main room as Mark pushed past him. 

“Good mourning!” Mark threw on his best smile, “guess what!” he laughed, moving past Ethan into the kitchen.

“What?” Ethan asked, following him. 

“I have, the best idea.” Mark laughed, throwing his hands in the air. 

“Really?” Ethan said in a voice laced with faux-excitement. 

“Yeah, so- remember when we decided to go shopping today? For winter clothes for everyone, and normal clothes for like Jack and Robin,” Mark thought for a moment, “Robin needs a flank-blanket, doesn't he?”

“Yeah, i remember you telling me about that” Ethan laughed, opening the fridge. 

“So, yeah!” Mark ruffled his hair as he leaned against the wall. “It's gonna be fun!” he laughed.

“Just heading to the mall?” Ethan asked, pulling a half finished bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. 

“The one near fountain square, yeah” Mark paused “but, i was thinking about doing all sorts of stuff”

“‘All sorts of stuff’ sounds fun” Ethan imitated him, taking a swig of his orange juice. 

Mark rubbed off the mocking tone in his friend's voice with a laugh, Ethan had a tendency to grow sassy when he was tired. Mark on the other hand, like to think himself as sassy all the time. “I'll figure out the specifics during school.” he defended himself after a moment, unable to come up with a snarky reply.

“Instead of paying attention in class” Ethan laughed into his orange juice. 

“I can do both!” Mark upheld his words, knowing full well he could not, and would not, be doing both today. 

They weren't doing much today in any of his classes anyway, it didn't matter. 

Ethan threw the now finished bottle of orange juice into the trash, before turning to Mark,“i'm gonna wake up Robin and Jack” he said, creeking open the door and walking into the bedroom. 

The school day goes by far too quickly, Mark isn't paying attention for most of it. He doesn't want to, his mind is more preoccupied with trying to plan the perfect day. It would be the perfect last day with Robin and Jack before his dad puts them in some other patrol.

Hopefully they would get put into a patrol near them, or even in their dorm building. At least there was somewhat of a chance that they’d have classes together. They’d find the time to hang out after school. It was weird to think it had only been a few days since their disaster of a camping trip, they haven't even known Jack and Robin for more than a week and they're practically family. They're just, really nice dudes and are really good at making friends, for the most part. 

Mark’s barely paying attention by the time the end of the day's announcements click off. He's already planned the rest of their day down to the last detail, they'd head out into the city, walk around fountain square, go shopping, go to some cute cafe for a snack, walk through the Market and end the day with eating out at a fancy restaurant. It will be great.

Mark stood up from his locker while haphazardly slinging his backpack over his shoulder. He'd have to find Ethan and Tyler so they could head out for the day’s activities. Hed written the basics of their schedule on his phone's notes. It wasn't like a strict schedule by any means, he wasn't going to be like ‘We have to eat in exactly forty minutes or were not eating at all.’ It was more of a list of places they had to go. A list of activities he really thought Jack and Robin would like. He wanted to show off the city to Jack and Robin in the best light possible, they were gonna love it so much. 

He'd spent almost all of Sixth period on his phone thinking of his favorite places in the city. He’d even tried to text Ethan for his opinion on the matter but all he got in response was Ethan angrily telling him not to text during class. So he texted Amy who sent him back an essay on why they need to go on a trek across town visiting all the cafes they could reach. 

Eventually he decided the best idea was to go to mountainside, the park by fountain square, first. Jack and Robin would probably enjoy exploring the modern art-esque park that was built along the side of the mountain. Then they'd have to go to the Marketplace of course, maybe visit Signes dad, his dad's patrolmate. They'd end the day by going out to eat at a fancy cafe and then going to the shopping center for their shopping. So they wouldn't have to lug their bags around all day. 

Ethan and Tyler were waiting for him by the edge of the lobby, they exchanged their usual greetings before leaving the school. 

Mark took his usual job as the friend that has to walk a few feet ahead of the others because three people cant comfortable walk side by side down a sidewalk. He was fine with it really, the times he stubbornly made a space for himself on the too-thin sidewalk, Ethan would try to walk in the grass. Mark didn't want to push his friend into walking in the grass, hed probably track mud all over the dorm if he did. 

“You think Robin and Jack did alright in the dorm by themselves all day?” Tyler voiced after a moment.

“Yeah, i'm fairly sure they didn't like, burn down the entire dorm while we were gone or anything.” Mark laughed. 

“I wouldn't be surprised.” Ethan said.

“Why?” Mark objected to that sentiment, they weren't that incompetent. 

“Bad luck with fire.” Ethan shrugged, delivering it like it was the funniest joke he'd ever made.

Mark stumbled, then laughed to cover it, “i'm pretty sure that was us, actually.” He didn’t want to think about fire. 

“It was a combined effort of bad luck.” Ethan corrected him. 

“Hey speaking of almost catching the dorm on fire, remember that time Ethan forgot to put water in his instant mac and cheese and caught the microwave on fire?” Mark voiced, catching Tyler's eyes and talking above Ethan. 

“It was one time man!” Ethan laughed, “how was i supposed to know?”

“I don't know, maybe the fact that the directions are right there on the cup? You know, the one the mac and cheese is inside of.” Mark threw his hands in the air, laughing. 

“Do you actually expect me to read?” Ethan mock-yelled. 

“Yes!” Tyler spoke up. 

“Listen, when i'm making instant mac i'm not worried about cooking it properly, i just want it cooked, so i can enjoy mediocre artificial cheesy goodness.” Ethan laughed. 

“Yeah, enjoy your burnt mac and cheese, i've heard it goes well with the taste of a burnt microwave.” Mark laughed. 

“Mark, you are the bane of my existence.” Ethan laughed. 

“You love me.” Mark laughed as he walked into the dormitory.

Snarky comments and just-good-enough immitations continued to echo up the stairwell, like they did most times as they walked up three flights of stairs. 

Mark sent a last mocking laugh at Ethan over shoulder about his constant inability to cook while he threw open the door to their dorm. Ethan and Tyler were lucky his dad taught him how to cook when he was kid. If he didn't know how to cook they’d be hopeless, eating store bought soup and instant mac and cheese everyday of their lives.

Jack and Robin were laying on the couch, watching what was probably the disney channel. It looked like they hadn't moved an inch since they left for school that morning.


End file.
